Autumn Days
by Reshuffle
Summary: Ruby Rose loved video games. Who didn't? But maybe becoming the Gamer and replacing her entire reality with an RPG with a rather quirky sense of humour was a little bit too much. Oh well. Casual players play the game for fun, but the smart player finds ways to break the game. And Ruby's the smartest of them all. Written in remembrance as a tribute to Monty Oum.
1. Chapter 1: Enter Ruby

**Chapter 1 : Enter Ruby**

* * *

 _A/N: So I watched RWBY a while back, and I loved it. I've also wanted to write an RPG Fic for quite a few years now. Way before The Gamer and SAO started being a thing. When that first Naruto RPG Fic came out, I forget which. RWBY is one of those worlds where it has every element required to make a good RPG Fic. And, of course, I've read a few good RPG Fics in this fandom. So I decided, why not? Especially since I do want to do a tribute to Monty Oum, who I believe was a man inspired by his firm beliefs in the potential of humanity._

 _So here it is. RWBY: Autumn Days. It is named in remembrance of Monty. The days after the Summer of our lives. It also coincides nicely with RWBY itself, seeing as it tells the story of life after Summer Rose. Requiescat in pace, Monty._

 _Note that I'll be borrowing the major concepts of The Gamer, while adding a few of my own tweaks to the system to make it more interesting. The fic will centre on Ruby, because while Jaune is an interesting character to drop The Gamer on, he's a pale shade compared to Ruby. Not only is she a more interesting character in general, she's smarter than Jaune, she gets a bunch of plot dumped onto her, and I think she'll just work it better. Unfortunately, the fic Grimm Games by Shadlith (Check it out!) has already done one of my favourite build paths in any MMORPG, so I'll be forced to build something else instead lest I get sued for plagiarism. Kidding. But it's no fun if I follow suit, so I'll be running a different build._

 _Here we go._

* * *

-AD-

* * *

There were many things that could be said about Ruby Rose.

One: She was a lovable, excitable, slightly klutzy girl with an adorable smile.

Two: She was smarter than most people assumed. Likely smarter than anyone accusing her of being dim.

And three: She loved video games. Yes, Ruby Rose was a gamer. And a damn good one, too.

Better yet, she was _The Gamer_. A life-changing fact that she had just discovered barely two seconds ago.

 **Welcome to Remnant! As the Gamer, you are the main character of your own story. Feel free to explore the continents, meet exciting people and discover the innermost secrets of Remnant! The world is at your fingertips. Good luck and have fun!**

Ruby rubbed her eyes. Maybe she was seeing things? She opened her eyes again.

Nope, still there... and not there, at the same time. It was strange, but while she could see the sentence in front of her, she knew it wasn't physically there at the same time.

A quick pinch reassured her that she wasn't dreaming either.

"Huh. That's new." Ruby muttered. "Where's the controller? How am I supposed to continue... Ah."

 **Would you like to access the tutorial? (Recommended for new players)**

"Yes."

 **Welcome to the Tutorial! The first thing to learn is how to access the system. There are two types of Commands: Hard and Soft. Hard Commands can only be activated by speaking, while Soft Commands can be activated by thinking. To continue, think 'Next'.**

Ruby did so.

 **Well done! Soft Commands generally include, but are not limited to, Commands such as 'Next', 'Close', 'Yes', 'No', and 'Go Back'. Later in the game, you can set Macros to activate several system commands at once with a single thought. These include activating Skills, swapping Classes/Titles and many more!**

Macros sounded extremely useful and time-saving. Ruby took a quick note of them before thinking, 'Next.'

 **You're getting the hang of it! Hard Commands on the other hand, can only be activated by speaking out loud. Don't worry about seeming crazy in public, no one else will notice it. Go ahead and try opening the Main Menu.**

Ruby frowned. From what she could glean from the sentence, no one would be able to interact with the system, meaning she was alone in this. But that would be thinking too far ahead. "Menu."

An overlay appeared before her, both visual and mental like the other sentences from before, and another sentence appeared.

 **Good job! Hard Commands can only be activated when you intend to activate them. So don't worry if you're at a restaurant and you ask to see a menu!**

Ruby giggled. It was a pretty good joke. 'Next.'

 **The Main Menu lists the system features that you currently have access to. Take a good look!**

 **Status**

 **Skills**

 **Inventory**

 **Quests**

 **Other features will be unlocked as you come across them in your travels. Now let's take a look at the Status screen.**

Ruby wondered how hard-coded the tutorial was, so she decided to try something else. "Skills."

 **You're such a rebel! While exploring the system is certainly encouraged, let's complete the tutorial first. Now access the Status screen this time, you rebel you.**

Ruby laughed. At least the narration had some amusing commentary, however crazy this entire situation was. "Fine, fine. Let's see the Status screen."

The overlay changed.

 **Ruby Rose  
** **Title: The Gamer  
** **Level: 1  
** **EXP: 0/100**

 **HP: 80/80  
** **HPR: 1.1/min**

 **STR: 4  
** **AGI: 9  
** **VIT: 3  
** **DEX: 6  
** **INT: 7  
** **WIS: 6  
** **LUK: 5**

 **Points: 0**

 **Condition: Normal**

 **Credits: 100 Lien**

The girl stared at the Status Screen. 'Looks like I just started a New Game. I'm only level 1, with 0 EXP to boot.'

 **This is your profile page. You should familiarize yourself with this page as soon as possible, because you'll be seeing it a lot!**

'Next.'

 **Here is an explanation of the various attributes that are listed on the Stats screen.**

 **Title – This your current Title. Titles are granted when you meet certain conditions and can grant special bonuses.**

 **Level – This is your current Level. Levels are the main way to measure power. It can be increased by earning Experience Points (EXP). Levelling up increases Maximum HP and AP and grants 5 points to allocate to your main stats.**

 **Experience Points (EXP) – This tells you how much experience you have accumulated and how much you require to hit the next Level. Experience Points can be gained from defeating opponents or completing Quests.**

 **Health Points (HP) – Health Points determine how much damage you can take in battle before falling. As you take damage, your current HP will drop. If you drop to zero, you will lose consciousness or die, depending on the circumstances. You can recover HP by resting, using items, or sleeping.**

 **Health Points Regeneration (HPR) – Health Points Regeneration affect how much HP you recover passively per second, measured in minutes.**

These seemed pretty standard to Ruby. AP was mentioned, which she took to mean Aura Points, but wasn't explained, probably because her Aura wasn't unlocked yet. 'Next.'

 **Strength (STR) – Strength determines how physically strong you are. This translates to how hard you can swing a weapon, how much weight you can lift, and how many things you can fit into your inventory. Do you even lift?**

 **Agility (AGI) – Agility determines how quick you move. This directly affects speed and reflexes, which are some of the most important combat statistics. How fast can you go?**

 **Vitality (VIT) – Vitality measures how tough you are. This determines your HP, your HP Regeneration and your resistance to physical ailments. Come at me bro!**

 **Dexterity (DEX) – Dexterity measures your body coordination. This affects your reflexes and your hand-eye coordination with ranged weapons, among other things. So you think you can dance?**

 **Intelligence (INT) – Intelligence determines how smart you are. This affects your learning rate along with Maximum AP. Most spells are dependent on Intelligence. Joke? What do you mean, 'joke'?**

 **Wisdom (WIS) – Wisdom determines how you utilize your knowledge. This also affects your perception, intuition, and AP Regeneration. The Answer is always 42.**

 **Luck (LUK) – Luck determines your lot in life. It affects all your stats in small ways along with how fortunate (or unfortunate) you are. So do you feel lucky, punk?**

 **Points – These are the number of points you have to allocate to your main attributes.**

 **Condition – This determines your current state of being. It directly affects how well you perform.**

 **Credits – This is how much money you currently have. The default currency of Remnant is Lien.**

Ruby blinked. That was a lot of information, and important, too. At least everything was similar to the standard RPG staples. 'Next.'

 **Tip: Your main attributes can be improved in other ways besides spending points. For example, weight training can improve Strength, while sprinting can improve Agility. As you go through life, you'll discover that many things can affect your stats. However, be sure to use your free points carefully, as the higher your stats go, the harder it is to increase them naturally.**

The girl frowned at the last sentence. From a logical standpoint, that meant that she should hold back her stat points as much as possible until her natural attribute increases hit a plateau. And with that thought, a quick notification appeared.

 **Your realization on the best way to improve your stats increases your WIS by 1.**

Ruby blinked and inexplicably felt her mind clear slightly. Now that she had experienced it, she saw that increasing her Wisdom as soon as possible would help best in the long run, seeing as each point directly affected how well she planned things.

 **Your realization that Wisdom is the wisest thing to increase early on increases your WIS by 1.**

The Gamer realized that her stats were only increasing so quickly because it was currently low.

...Nothing?

"Well, it was worth a shot." Ruby muttered. "At least now I know that it's not that easy."

 **Your realization that Wisdom doesn't come easy increases your WIS by 1.**

"There it is."

With her mind clearer than it was before, Ruby immediately theorized that Wisdom could be increased by mental activities, and that Wisdom paid for itself, so to speak. That meant that she had to place as much focus on the stat as possible in order to get more of it as soon as possible.

It also seemed clear to her that she could most likely earn Wisdom via actually planning things smartly along with actually understanding more life lessons, rather than just faking it.

 **Your understanding of the way to train Wisdom increases your WIS by 1.**

And that meant that Ruby could probably increase Wisdom extremely quickly early on with little effort, and her plateau would only come once she ran out of wise things to think about. At that point, the only way to increase Wisdom naturally would be clever decision-making.

Interesting. Seeing as this was her life now, and would probably be for the foreseeable future, it would be best if she got about to min-maxing herself.

 **Your wise decision to plan to maximize your stats early on increases your WIS by 1.**

After all, she now had a game system. And there is always a best, most efficient way to play every game. Breaking the system, as it were.

Now keen to move on, Ruby closed the notifications and went back to where she was before.

 **Tip: Your main attributes can be improved in other ways besides spending points. For example, weight training can improve Strength, while sprinting can improve Agility. As you go through life, you'll discover that many things can affect your stats. However, be sure to use your free points carefully, as the higher your stats go, the harder it is to increase them naturally.**

'Next.'

 **Let's return to the Main Menu.**

'Go back.'

 **Status**

 **Skills**

 **Inventory**

 **Quests**

 **Now that we've covered the Status page, let's try the accessing the Skills page.**

"Skills." Ruby said. Another overlay appeared.

 **Skill List**

 **Gamer's Mind – Level: MAX**

 **Gamer's Body – Level: MAX**

 **Observe – Level: 1**

 **This is your skill list! While it may look rather empty right now, as your keep playing, your skill list will only grow larger. As such, there are a few features to help organize things. You can shift the layout of the list by Hard Commanding 'Grid' or 'List', which can be arranged by Soft Commanding 'Category', 'Alphabetical', and so on. However, feel free to modify the page however you like. The skill page is perfectly customizable to your needs.**

That was useful to Ruby. She swapped back and forth between the Grid and List modes for a while, before deciding she preferred List. She then categorized the list by 'Passive' and 'Active', along with adding the 'Interest', 'Useful', 'Maybe' and 'Clutter' categories and immediately moving both Gamer's Mind and Gamer's Body to the last one. While they would definitely classify under useful, they were static passives that she couldn't improve by any means, and thus only served to make the overlay interface more cluttered. This would save her a couple of headaches and misreads in the future.

 **Your wise decision to keep everything organized has increased your WIS by 1.**

Ruby closed the notification. It was common sense really. An organized HUD was always preferable to one that was a general mess. She only wished that normal video games allowed such customizable menus. She continued the tutorial with a 'Next.'

 **To find out more about a particular skill, Soft Command its name. Try finding out more about Gamer's Mind.**

'Gamer's Mind.'

 **Gamer's Mind (Passive) – Level: MAX**

 **Description: Allows the user to live reality as a video game. As such, the user can calmly and logically think through any situation. Grants Immunity to Psychological Effects.**

"That explains why I'm not freaking out right now." Ruby mused. "I'm treating the whole thing as a video game. I guess reality hasn't kicked in yet." She quickly exited the Skill Details and was greeted with a quick message.

 **Great! Now check out the other skills you have!**

She quickly checked out Gamer's Body.

 **Gamer's Body (Passive) – Level: MAX**

 **Description: The user is given a body that functions as if in a video game. As such, all HP, AP and Status Effects are recovered after sleeping. If the user sleeps in a proper bed for at least 7 hours, their Condition is improved.**

Ruby blinked. Apparently even her body functioned as if it was an RPG. Which was brilliant, because that meant that she could recover from anything by simply sleeping. That meant that she could train herself to exhaustion one day, sleep, and be perfectly fine the next! No muscle sores, nothing!

This allowed her to push herself physically as well to improve her non-mental statistics quickly. Lastly, she decided to find out about 'Observe.'

 **Observe (Active/Passive) – Level: 1**

 **Description: Created through continued observation. This skill allows the user to gain information on any object or being. Active use increases the amount of information observed. Higher levels increase the amount of information given during active use.**

 **Cost: Free**

She closed the Details box.

 **Observe is currently only at Level 1, but can be levelled up by using it repeatedly. As with your Attributes, they develop quickly at lower levels, and are much harder to develop at higher levels.**

Observe was free to use, so there was no excuse for her not levelling it up. 'Next.'

 **Tip: Skills can be created by performing Special Actions. These Special Actions can be anything from mundane activities, to specialized training or simply experimenting. However, keep in mind that these have to actually be performed and not just theorized. Have fun discovering and using new Skills!**

Also another interesting point for our Gamer. She made a note to figure out exactly what constituted Special Actions. 'Next.'

 **Let's go back to the Main Menu.**

She did.

 **Access your Inventory.**

She did that too. A new overlay appeared before her. The left side showed what she was currently wearing, which was her casual clothes. The right side, however, was disappointingly empty.

 **This is your Inventory. You don't have anything at the moment. Here, have a cookie!**

A cookie randomly appeared in one of the slots on the right.

 **Much like the skills page, the Inventory page is also fully customizable. The default categories include All, Usable, Weapons, Armour, Accessories, Key Items and Etc.**

It seemed to be efficient enough, so aside from creating a 'Junk' category, Ruby left it well enough alone.

 **On your left is the Equipment Screen. You do not have to access this screen to swap equipment, but it serves as a convenient way to see what you're currently wearing. Remember, you are what you wear, so pick carefully now.**

 **Let's go back to the Main Menu.**

Ruby was getting a bit bored of the tutorial, but she decided to stick it out in case anything important was mentioned.

 **Your wise decision to be patient increases your WIS by 1.**

Ruby closed the notification, and then followed the system prompting to return to the Main Menu.

 **Let's visit the last page, Quests.**

"Quests." A new interface popped up. In it, there was one thing that really stood out.

 **Finish the Tutorial**

It was listed under Current Quests. There were two other categories as well; Available and Completed. Immediately thankful for her previous decision, Ruby read the message that inevitably appeared.

 **Quests are tasks that you can choose to undertake. These can be anything ranging from defeating monsters to attending an event or even persuading someone. The rewards for completing a Quest are often beneficial, while failing it can have disastrous effects. Be sure that when you accept a quest, you can complete it successfully. Now let's complete the Quest "Finish the Tutorial." Close the Main Menu.**

The moment Ruby did so, she was greeted by a message.

 **Congratulations, you have completed the Tutorial! Now, armed with the necessary knowledge, go forth into the World of Remnant and make your mark! Most importantly, enjoy yourself! Oh, and you get to keep the Cookie!**

Closing the message, a notification appeared.

" **Finish the Tutorial" – Quest Complete!**

 **Rewards: 50 EXP, +1 INT, +1 WIS**

 **Bonus: You're such a rebel! +50 EXP**

A separate notification appeared.

 **You have gained a level! You are now Level 2.**

The effects were immediate. And now that Ruby had gained a point of Intelligence, she realized how different it was from Wisdom. For one, Wisdom made her mind clearer, but Intelligence made her mind _sharper_. She felt smarter already.

Just to note the differences from levelling up, she decided to bring up the Status page.

 **Ruby Rose  
** **Title: The Gamer  
** **Level: 2  
** **EXP: 0/200**

 **HP: 100/100  
** **HPR: 1.3/min**

 **STR: 4  
** **AGI: 9  
** **VIT: 3  
** **DEX: 6  
** **INT: 8  
** **WIS: 14  
** **LUK: 5**

 **Points: 5**

 **Condition: Normal**

 **Credits: 100 Lien**

Levelling up had increased her Max HP from 80 to 100. A difference of 20 HP. She decided to document it in order to figure out the formulas to the game. She could only truly min-max herself if she could figure out the formulas behind the system.

Her HPR had increased too, from 1.1 to 1.3, which had a net difference of 0.2. That was suspiciously similar to the 20 HP increase. Was the added value based on the level increase or the change in Max HP?

Her WIS had shot up quite a fair amount while her INT had gone up by one. She also had five free points to allocate now.

There were so many questions left to be answered, so many formulas to derive! While it wasn't her most favourite thing in the world, Ruby was pretty good at math. She kinda had to be, seeing as she wanted to design the most badass Sniper-Scythe in existence! The blueprints for her darling weapon, aptly christened Crescent Rose, was over half complete. It was just begging to worked on!

But Crescent Rose would have to wait for now, because Ruby Rose had a game to break.

* * *

-AD-

* * *

 _A/N: Well now. I wrote this in... somewhere close to 6 hours straight, I believe. That includes coming up with formulas, game concepts and other stuff that I may or may not throw in later. So. Reasons as to why I don't see Ruby as being OOC._

 _First off, it's not too far-fetched that Ruby is a gamer. Seeing as she's rather socially awkward, I'd say it's pretty fair that we can assume she spends a fair amount of time playing video games when she's free. Secondly, she has to be extremely intelligent, at least in mathematics and physics. In canon, Ruby admits she may have gone a bit overboard designing Crescent Rose. That's right, she designed an absolutely ridiculous piece of mechanized technology that would make experienced engineers blush. Before she even turns 15. Think about that._

 _With the Gamer's Mind passive and her gaming experience, she is looking at her life objectively. She knows she needs to min-max herself if she wants to be the very best Huntress there is. That's why she's actually trying to break the game. The reality of her life turning into a game hasn't really set in yet, however, but Ruby is one who takes things by stride... even if she's quite a worrier at times._

 _The main reason WIS is increasing so fast is because Ruby is actually being wise about handling things. Rather than jumping straight into things, she's taking her time, planning things out. Plus, it's easy to gain Wisdom early on, as there are many lessons that can be learnt, but only applied once. For example, she won't gain another point in Wisdom for discovering the best way to actually raise her stats, even if she manages to derive the full formulas, because she already claimed the point for that._

 _However, she may get WIS points for deciding to derive said formulas. However, it becomes harder to raise WIS after a certain point. She may need to make ten wise decisions before increasing WIS by one, or realize a whole bunch of things. Life lessons, however, always grants a point in WIS, because of their rare nature._

 _Also, she needs to honestly feel a certain way or really learn a lesson before she gets a point in Wisdom for it. That's harder than you'd think. You can read something like 'Patience is a Virtue' and walk away without actually learning anything. You have to experience 'Patience is a Virtue' and agree with it before getting that one point in WIS. Which Ruby hasn't, by the way. She just made a wise decision to finish the tutorial, not really understanding the value of patience itself._

 _Who knows where this fic'll go. Writing game-fics are very tiring, however, so I'll probably update this only when I feel the urge to._

 _Seeya._


	2. Chapter 2: Of Dancing and Death

**Chapter 2: Of Dancing and Death**

 _A/N: So I spent another 12 hours completely deriving multiple systems and formulas, and I think I have something that works at the moment. But that's all so far ahead it doesn't matter at the moment. Let's see about getting there._

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

"Yang... I think I discovered my Semblance. It turns my life into an RPG and I'm the main character and stuff... Nope, still sounds too weird."

Ruby huffed. For the past ten minutes she had been working out what to tell her beloved older sister. The first hour after discovering that her life had become an RPG had been marked with excitement. It was just too cool! When she had looked at the time, however, she realized that it was about time for Yang to reach home from work and she was bouncing with excitement to share the momentous news with her sister.

"Yang, did you know that I'm an RPG character?" She tried again, before shaking her head. "Too direct."

"Yang, I'm really, really wise!" Too random.

"Yang, I wish I was Level 99, just like you!"

"I'm level what now?" A voice came from behind her.

"GAH!" Ruby jumped, before turning around. "Don't _do_ that Yang!"

A bombshell blonde stretched rather unrepentantly and shrugged. "Sorry, Sis. So what's up?"

"I think I discovered my Semblance!" Ruby chirped excitedly. "I'm The Gamer!"

Yang looked like she didn't know quite what to say. "Uh... sure, you're a gamer, Sis. How's that a Semblance?"

"No, I mean like, I'm _The Gamer._ My life's a video game now." Ruby tried to explain. "I get stats and everything."

"Uh... whatever you say sis." Yang said. "I'm going out for a walk."

Ruby was puzzled. "Huh? But you just got back!"

"I don't know. I just feel like it, y'know?" Yang turned her back and walked away from her rather uncharacteristically. Not knowing what to do, but trying to tell Yang about her Semblance, Ruby chased after her.

"Yang! I need to tell you something! It's important!" Ruby tried to keep up with her and grabbed the blonde's arm, desperation leaking into her voice. Yang was behaving really strangely.

"I'm busy right now, Sis." Yang spun to face her and said. "I'll talk to you later, alright?"

"But you said you were just going for a-" But Yang had already left. "...walk."

The redhead's irises began to burn and her lips began to quiver. Yang had _never_ ignored her before. Not like this. Especially not when Ruby said that it was important. The blonde had gone out of her way to avoid Ruby instead, and it was just so unlike her.

Ruby wiped the tears that threatened to spill from her eyes before retreating back into her bedroom. Maybe it was this stupid Gamer thing that made Yang act that way.

It was a rather errant thought, but to Ruby, it made more sense than Yang purposefully avoiding her.

She had to experiment and find out the truth. She took out her Scroll and quick-dialled Yang's number. After two rings the blonde picked up.

" _Heya Sis. What's up?"_ Yang's voice was carefree, as if they hadn't just had a conversation at all.

"Hey, Yang." Ruby started, unsure of how to continue. "...Do you have the time to talk?"

" _Sure, Sis."_ Came the quick reply. _"You sound kinda depressed. What's going on?"_

"Well, you see... I have this Semblance and it's called The Gamer." _Click._ The line was cut. And Yang never, ever hung up a call.

"...Well that settles it." Ruby muttered. "I physically can't tell anyone about this. This sucks."

A hundred questions began eating into Ruby. What if everyone else wasn't real? What if she was the only 'real' person in the world? Sure, it was cool for a while, but when Ruby really thought about it, she started to feel really, really scared.

"I just wish I knew why I can't tell Yang about this..."

 **Long-Term Quest Available: "Breaking Down The Wall"**

 **Description: Find out why no one can be told about The Gamer and deal with the problem.**

 **Rewards: Ability to tell others about The Gamer, Party System unlocked, "Greek Chorister" Title, 10,000 EXP**

 **Do you wish to accept?**

Ruby didn't even think twice about it. 'Yes.'

The fact that the quest had even appeared had immensely cheered up Ruby and given her hope. It meant that yes, everyone was real enough, and that if she could complete the quest, she could have her sister by her side again.

Till then, she was truly alone. Without Yang, who had always been there for her.

It was daunting, but Ruby had always been one to look at the silver lining. At least this cloud had a few.

One, this Gamer and non-Gamer segregation was only temporary. Two, she now had a goal in mind to work towards to. And three, the whole RPG thing was still kinda awesome, even if she couldn't tell others about it.

Right, so back to work! She had worked on the stats portion earlier, but hadn't managed to work out anything specific yet. She had a few mathematical equations set out for HP and HPR already, so the only way she could prove either one of them to be real is if there was a change in her VIT attribute or her level. Now to test her skills.

"Observe." She said at nothing in particular.

Nothing happened, so Ruby took some notes. "Alright, so I need an actual target, and not just what's in front of me."

She tried again, focusing on her mechanical pencil this time. "Observe."

 **Pencil  
** **Description: This is a pencil. You could probably stab someone with it if you wanted to, but most people use it for writing.  
** **Durability: 79/100 (Normal Use), 3/3 (Weapon Use)**

That was rather interesting. Now she took out a wooden pencil from her pencil case and Observed it.

 **Pencil  
** **Description: This is a pencil. You could probably stab someone with it if you wanted to, but most people use it for writing.  
** **Durability: 98/100 (Normal Use), 3/3 (Weapon Use)**

 **Through continued use, your Observe Skill has levelled up by 1!**

Ruby closed the notification. According to the description of the Observe Skill, each level should allow her to gather more information about an object. With that in mind, she tried again on the mechanical pencil. 'Observe.'

 **Mechanical Pencil  
** **Description: This is a mechanical pencil. It's basically a Pencil 2.0. Its durability can be restored with a specific Pencil Lead.  
** **Durability: 78/100 (Normal Use), 3/3 (Weapon Use)**

Ruby blinked. That was different. She had already known that it was a mechanical pencil to begin with, but Observe had given her a different answer at first. Eager to learn more, she repeated the exercise on the wooden pencil.

 **Pencil  
** **Description: This is a pencil. You could probably stab someone with it if you wanted to, but most people use it for writing.  
** **Durability: 98/100 (Normal Use), 3/3 (Weapon Use)**

It remained the same as before. That meant that the Observe Skill categorized both items as 'Pencils', and that the wooden pencil was considered to be its basest form, while the mechanical pencil was a step beyond that. She noted that neither Observations gave her the exact brand name or lead specifications, something that she assumed would be tacked on later as she gained levels in the Skill.

That told her that Observe did not draw from her current knowledge of the target, but instead gave information independent of it based on the Skill level. It would come in handy if she came across anything she didn't already understand, and if she already knew what it was then Observe was pretty obsolete anyway aside from identifying properties such as an object's durability.

 **Thorough experimenting has improved your knowledge, increasing your INT by 1.**

Well, that was nice. So gaining INT was dependent on actually learning something. That meant that properly discovering the formula of her stats should grant her more INT points, which, if she remembered correctly, should increase her late of learning as well. Another statistic that fed itself, much like WIS.

That meant that with enough diligence, she shouldn't have to worry about either attribute until their natural gain tapered off. It seemed like a solid plan, so she continued on with what she was doing.

"Let's see what else you can do." Ruby mused. She closed her eyes while focusing intently on the mechanical pencil and said, "Observe."

Nothing appeared. She opened her eyes, faced away from the pencil and tried again. "Observe."

Still no results. Ruby tried once more, this time with the pencil barely in her field of vision. "Observe."

 **Mechanical Pencil  
** **Description: This is a mechanical pencil. It's basically a Pencil 2.0. Its durability can be restored with a specific Pencil Lead.  
** **Durability: 76/100 (Normal Use), 3/3 (Weapon Use)**

Excellent. That meant that anything within her field of vision could be observed, even if her eyes didn't focus on it. That could be useful if she didn't want to show any interest towards the target.

Ruby wondered if the limitation was simply sight, or could she Observe something she heard? Or better yet, smelt?

She quickly got about to testing the first option by playing some music on her Scroll out loud and closing her eyes. "Observe."

 **Scroll  
** **Description: A personal handheld telecommunication device. Not to be confused with a primitive book.  
** **Durability: 99/100  
** **Battery: 6/100**

 **Through continued use, your Observe Skill has levelled up by 1!**

Ruby yelped in alarm, not having realized that her Scroll battery was dying. She leapt up from the table to her nightstand and quickly plugged in her charger.

Safe for now, the silver-eyed girl went back to the topic at hand. Being able to Observe something on hearing alone could be immensely useful, especially since it pinpointed the source rather than the sound itself.

If that was the case, smell and taste and touch should be similar. Ruby closed her eyes and touched her nightstand. "Observe."

No message appeared. Leaning down and inhaling the resin scent of the nightstand while activating the Skill did nothing either. Strange.

Of course, just to be thorough, Ruby decided to test the last sense, taste. Might as well, after all. So she licked the nightstand.

 **You have performed a Special Action! By activating Observe while tasting something, you have unlocked a new Skill!**

 **Discern Taste (Active/Passive) – Level: 1**

 **Description: Through practice, you are able to distinguish between the different flavours in even the most complex of cuisines. Higher levels in the skill allows the discerning of more specific details, such as method of cooking and cooking time.**

 **Cost: Free**

 **The Nightstand was cooked using Wood and Dust!**

"BLECH!" Ruby quickly spat out, scrubbing her tongue. 'I gotta get this thing _cleaned_.'

Still, a new skill was a new skill. She supposed that it could be useful, especially if she was being drugged or poisoned or something... though that was a rather dark train of thought that came out of nowhere.

Well, seeing as she hadn't yet, she decided to Observe the nightstand for the sake of it.

 **Nightstand  
** **Description: A bedside table. Make sure you have one so you can truthfully proclaim that you have one Nightstands.  
** **Durability: 69/100**

"Oh by the great balls of Monty Oum, this stupid Gamer thing likes bad jokes like Yang does!" She exclaimed in horror.

While she didn't quite know what the first half of her sentence meant (having parroted it from the aforementioned blonde herself when she was frustrated), Ruby knew that it was probably something gross. But whatever it was, it probably wasn't as bad as that stupid pun that the Game just made, of which more would probably pop out every few Observes or so. It dawned on her that this was likely just the beginning of a long, loooooooong humour-impaired life.

Well, maybe not. Some of the other descriptions were genuinely funny, at least. It wasn't much, but Ruby was desperate for any kind of silver lining at this point.

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

After the appearance of Discern Taste, Ruby set about trying to discover more Skills, namely by doing her chores. She wasn't going to be exempt from them just because her life had turned into a video game!

 **You have performed a Special Action! By mixing edible ingredients together, you have unlocked a new Profession!**

 **Cooking (Profession) – Level: 1**

 **Description: The art of cooking has been around since the discovery of fire. You can create food by using this Skill and having the necessary ingredients on hand. Higher levels will allow the creation of more complex and higher quality cuisines. Master chefs can fully utilize ingredients to the point of reducing ingredient costs. Requires ingredients.**

 **You have performed a Special Action! By washing the dishes, you have unlocked a new Profession!**

 **Dishwashing (Profession) – Level: 1**

 **Description: Man was tired of dirty dishes, and thus he rinsed them with water and soap. This Skill allows you to clean all kitchenware. Levelling it up increases cleaning efficiency and allows for multiple objects to be washed at once.**

 **You have performed a Special Action! By walking the dog, you have unlocked a new Profession!**

 **Animal Handling (Profession) – Level: 1**

 **Description: The relationship between Man and Beast dates back for many a millennia. This Skill allows you to train and influence animals. Levelling it up increases obedience levels and taming success rates.**

There were some chores that didn't turn into Skills, however. Cleaning her room hadn't given her anything and neither did taking out the trash. Which didn't make sense, because there was a Dishwashing Skill! Why just the dishes and not everything else?

She grumbled at the apparent lack of usefulness of her new Skills, or rather, Professions, as the game put it. Well, at least levelling up those Professions would result in her completing her chores more efficiently, which meant more time for her to develop her other Skills. She quickly created a 'Profession' category in her Skills List and dumped them there.

Now that she was free for the rest of the day, though, what other skills could there possibly be?

She shuffled back to her room and sat down, eager to experiment and humming a merry tune.

 **You have performed a Special Action! By utilizing your voice melodically, you have unlocked a new Profession!**

 **Singing (Profession) – Level: 1**

 **Description: The greatest gift given to Man is the gift of music. This Skill measures your ability to create and perform music with your vocal chords. Levelling it up increases vocal range, versatility, flexibility and control.**

That was quick. It also told Ruby that a whole bunch of other similar activities existed that could likely be turned into a Profession. ...Such as acting. She cleared her throat.

"To be, or not to be! That is the question." Ruby declared dramatically, as if practicing for a play. Not that she knew the rest of the play or where it was from, but all that didn't matter anyway.

 **You have performed a Special Action! By rehearsing the lines to a play, you have unlocked a new Profession!**

 **Acting (Profession) – Level: 1**

 **Description: All the world is a stage, and all the men and women merely players. That includes you, the Gamer! This Skill measures your ability to act and take on different roles and personas. Levelling it up increases character immersion, charisma, fluency and believability.**

Sweet sugar bunnies, this was actually a useful skill! Higher levels would make her more charismatic and fluent, meaning that she'd be better liked! Ruby resolved to increase this skill as much as possible.

It would also stand to reason that dancing was a skill as well, so she quickly got up and danced. Or more accurately, flailed around like a headless chicken.

...Nothing happened. After having thoroughly embarrassing herself, she sat down again, face a-flaming. She had never been any good at dancing, despite how much she had tried.

"Okay, either the Game didn't register that as dancing, or the Dancing Skill doesn't exist." Ruby muttered. "What am I missing..."

She snapped her fingers. "Of course! Music!"

She put on one of her favourite tunes by JnCLW before attempting to thoroughly embarrass herself once more.

 **You have performed a Special Action! By moving your body to the beat, you have unlocked a new Profession!**

 **Dancing (Profession) – Level: 1**

 **Description: Dancing is like dreaming with your feet. This Skill measures your ability to move rhythmically to music. Levelling it up increases body coordination, flexibility, and synchronicity. Higher levels allow for more complex moves.**

Ruby was nearly in tears when she suddenly realized that _she knew how to dance._ For some strange reason, instead of thrashing about wildly like a fish out of water, her body was moving fluidly and in beat. Every step was graceful and measured, and dancing felt like the most natural thing in the world.

It was beautiful.

She hadn't even realized when the current song had ended and the next song on the track started playing. She felt so limber, so graceful, so _free!_

 **Through continued practice, your Dancing Skill has levelled up by 1!**

 **Dancing has improved your body coordination and flexibility, increasing your DEX by 1.**

She had been almost disappointed when she had to stop to note down the changes that levelling up her Dancing had brought. Promising herself a full-on dance session later, whether or not it was the most efficient way to do things, she reluctantly turned off the music and got to work.

Levelling up Dancing had granted her more knowledge on dancing techniques and steps. Earning a point in Dexterity on the other hand had caused her body to feel more responsive and synchronized. Ruby felt like she could react better and pull off more complex physical moves now. It seemed like DEX was going to be an extremely important combat stat.

Speaking of complex physical moves, would something like somersaulting give her a Skill?

Only one way to find out. Ruby didn't quite know how to pull off a somersault or backflip yet, but she could execute a perfect cartwheel, so she gave it a try.

 **You have performed a Special Action! By performing a complex manoeuvre, you have unlocked a new Skill!**

 **Acrobatics (Passive) – Level: 1**

 **Description: Fancy moving, including, but not limited to; twirls, flips, rolls, back-bending, somersaults, cartwheels and handsprings. This is considered a Passive Skill and does not need to be activated to use. Higher levels allow for more complex manoeuvres and control.**

Our Gamer girl's eyes were wide open as she suddenly knew how to do a handspring. Which, of course, she summarily performed.

"That was so cool." Ruby commented, her eyes shining with excitement. This power of hers was awesome!

She wondered, though, whether she could perform movements that she hadn't been provided knowledge of yet. Theoretically, a handspring was similar to a somersault, which meant that _theoretically_ , she could do it. However, she hadn't been given precise information on how to do one yet. Could she utilize what little she knew to improvise a new move, or would the Game disallow her from doing so? Once again, there was only one way to find out.

She landed rather painfully on her butt.

Ruby stood up and brushed herself off. "Okay, note to self; a somersault is _nothing_ like a handspring. But I get the feeling something's not quite right here..."

She had been able to perform a cartwheel before she had learnt the Acrobatics Skill. In fact, that was what created the Acrobatics Skill in the first place. However, the Game hadn't given her the knowledge on how to perform a cartwheel. Could she still perform it?

A quick cartwheel proved that she could. That meant that she could still execute a cartwheel without the Game teaching her how to.

Then an idea hit her. What if only the knowledge she gained could not be used for improvisation?

...Wait, no, that made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Both her mind _and_ body knew how to perform a handspring, and she could theorize how to use that knowledge to create other moves in the same way she could with the cartwheel.

"Maybe a somersault really is nothing like a handspring." Ruby muttered aloud, sighing. Still, she wondered what else she could do with it, and what levelling it up would bring, so she decided to keep doing it before she was hit by an idea.

'Hold on... could I practice two things at once?' She questioned. If she could act out a scene with acrobatic stunts...

It was a long shot, but she decided to try it anyway.

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

"You'll never catch me alive." Ruby smirked at an imaginary knight captain.

Of course, no one answered her. But she could pretend that he responded with an insult.

She spun dramatically. "Not today, Captain Bladder. I'll see you on the other side... if you ever get there, you dummy."

And thus the Dark Lady Ruby launched into an array of acrobatics around the desolated war-torn battlefield that was her bedroom.

She narrowly avoided the spray of bullets coming from her right with a perfect handspring, barely dodging them by a hair's breadth. As she landed neatly on her feet, she quickly ducked behind the tabl- _rubble_ to protect herself from the shockwave of a nearby explosion.

"It's as if I'm an Oum-damned celebrity." She muttered sarcastically. "Is everyone out here to get my autograph?"

She was proven correct when an imaginary soldier discovered her behind her cover. She lashed out with a mighty kick-

 **You have perfor-**

 **Through conti-**

 **Constant qu-**

'NO INTERRUPTIONS!' She yelled mentally and closed both notifications before continuing. The show must go on!

She lashed out with a mighty kick and knocked the soldier out in one swift motion. Five other soldiers appeared, but she quickly dispatched them one after another. The first fell with a quick knee to the stomach, while the second and third had their heads smashed together. The fourth was a bit more of a challenge, but went down after she sweep-kicked him off his feet and chained into a quick heel drop. The fifth one was about to run away, but she quickly stole one of the soldier's guns and shot him in the back.

Danger averted for the moment, she quickly jumped onto the rubble and leapt over to the bed- _awning_. She sensed that the knight captain was behind her.

"It appears you have managed to keep up, Captain Bladder." The Dark Lady said with a smirk, not turning around to face him. "Perhaps you're not quite useless after all."

 **Through contin-**

'I SAID NO INTERRUPTIONS!' Ruby thought with gritted teeth, before addressing Captain Bladder once more. "I was waiting for you however. You took your own sweet time. Look at all your poor, dead men."

The unfortunately-named knight captain told her that she'd never get away with it, to which she laughed hysterically in response.

"I'll never get away with it?" She turned and levelled her stolen gun at Captain Bladder. "No, you see, my dear Captain. I already have."

Before she could shoot however, the Captain had already fired at her, hitting her once in the shoulder and causing her to drop her gun, while two more bullets piercing her stomach dropped her to her knees. She fell forward to the ground, her body no longer able to support her.

"Heh. Good... job, Capt'n..." The Dark Lady said, her breathing labored, before using the last of her energy to turn onto her back with a sad smile. "None of 'em... are dead... They're good men... aren't they?"

 **Through conti-** 'Close.'

The Knight Captain knelt over her, tears streaming down his face.

"Are you... crying...?" She asked in wonder. Her hand shakily reached out onto his face. "Don't cry... my love. I... never deserved... your tears."

"Sometimes I wonder what goes through that head of yours."

"Yeah... well... up yours too..." Ruby chuckled weakly in return. Something else she didn't quite understand but had picked up from Yang anyway.

"Would you care to repeat that, young lady?" Wait... that didn't sound like something Captain Bladder would say. And didn't she know that voice?

And then it clicked.

She froze. The chaotic battlefield reverted back into her familiar looking bedroom, which now looked like it had actually been in the middle of a warzone. She turned her head slowly to the door to see a blonde man standing there with his hands crossed, an amused frown marring his face.

"Um... hi Dad. You're home early."

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

It took Ruby nearly half an hour to explain to her her father that no, she wasn't crazy, yes, it was just acting, and no, she wasn't involved in any local plays. No, she didn't have a boyfriend either and his name was certainly not Captain Bladder. No, she hadn't had the slightest idea what 'Up yours' meant, yes, she heard Yang say it, and yes, she'll clean up her room again later.

Her father, Tai-Yang, had been filled with relief that his little girl hadn't gone insane. So Ruby figured that it couldn't hurt to try to tell him about The Game.

"Hey Dad, I've discovered my Semblance. I'm now an RPG character."

"That's nice." The blonde replied as if she hadn't said anything important.

"I'm not joking. I'm in a video game right now."

"I'm going to go take a shower."

As Tai-Yang stood up and left for his room, Ruby once again felt the sting of rejection sharply even though she had expected it this time around. She bit back the tears, deciding to focus instead on analyzing what had happened. The same signs had appeared when she had attempted to tell Yang about The Game.

At first, they gleaned over it as if she hadn't said anything of importance. Then, if she continued to bring attention to it, they would attempt to physically leave the conversation. Ruby had no doubts that had she tried to force the issue, Tai-Yang would've done something drastic like shut his room door and lock her out.

She would have to test it to see what repetition would do. She had to figure out what they were hearing when she told them about The Game. Were they hearing something different, or were they simply forced to ignore her words? When she brought attention to it, why did they attempt to leave? Did they get the urge to do something or were they simply avoiding her for a set period of time?

Forcing the issue, of course, would have very uncharacteristic responses, meaning they would not behave the way they would normally do. Was it the Game manipulating them, or was it something else influencing them to avoid the Game? Maybe both?

Whatever it was, she wouldn't be able to figure it out for now. There was simply too little information, so she decided to get started on cleaning her room.

Frolicking with Captain Bladder was fun though. She'd have to do it again sometime. Which reminded her, those notifications she had closed earlier... Was there a Log System for her to check the notifications she missed? It didn't hurt to try.

"Log." She tried.

An overlay appeared, detailed with her history of notifications. Now to find the correct starting point... ah, there it was. How convenient.

 **5\. You have performed a Special Action! By fighting unarmed, you have unlocked a new Skill!**

 **Unarmed Mastery (Passive) – Level: 1**

 **Description: If you don't have a weapon, punch them. If you don't have any arms, kick them. If you don't have any legs, bite them to death. Increases Damage dealt when Unarmed or wearing Fists or Greaves by 1%.**

 **4\. Through continued use, your Acrobatics Skill has levelled up by 1!**

 **3\. Constant quick movements have improved your nimbleness, increasing your AGI by 1.**

 **2\. Through continued practice, your Acting Skill has levelled up by 1!**

 **1\. Through continued practice, your Acting Skill has levelled up by 1!**

This Log was definitely going to be a useful feature.

Unarmed Mastery gave her an increase in combat... which she had unlocked by kicking the air. Ruby noticed that it barely gave her any knowledge on fighting Unarmed, just how to avoid injury when punching by locking her wrists and not her elbows. She quickly created a new category named 'Weapon Mastery' and relocated the Skill there, since she was certain that there would be others. With that done, she continued down the Log.

With that point increase in Agility, she felt quicker than before, as if her body was simply faster. It was hard to explain how she knew, but she just _knew_. She was willing to bet anything she owned that she could beat her previous sprinting records.

The Level increase in Acrobatics had given her the knowledge on forward rolls, which she was sure was going to be very useful. Just like Dancing and Dexterity, the Skill Level Up notification had arrived at the same time as the Agility notification. Could they possibly be related? She would have to make sure to take note of it when it next Levelled up.

She didn't quite know how to tell whether her acting had actually improved or not, so she just took the Game's word for it. Although she did notice that earlier when she was Acting, it became easier and easier to ignore the incoming notifications. She had also managed to keep up her belief that her room was actually a warzone towards the end of the scene. Is that what character im-mer-sion meant? She'd have to ask Dad or Yang later.

Oh, and she had totally managed to prove her theory that multiple Skills could be trained together at the same time, so that was awesome! She was totally going to incorporate Dancing and Acrobatics later during her 'Me' Time.

But first, she needed to grab something to eat. Dying was hungry business, even if it was just a scene.

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

 _A/N: This was rather fun, if a bit frustrating to write. I was actually stuck on what to do for a while, seeing as I didn't really have any real plans on what to do (which I totally have now after hours of brainstorming). Or at least, I have a general guideline for the plot, which makes things much, much easier. So cheers to that._

 _As for no one else interfering with the Gamer thing... I was tired of seeing so many fics with people knowing about the Game. It just kills it for me, because people who aren't living it suddenly have so many things to add, or form the opinions of the Gamer. I decided to go around that and implement an unlockable Party System so that Ruby might be able to tell Yang someday... it definitely won't be easy though._

 _I think Ruby is really coming into her own character here. I'd like to think that I've captured her essence- her ditzy-ness, her hair-trigger emotions, her childishness and her wild imagination. I've also made sure she's rather innocent and looks to Yang as her role model and someone to rely on. So yes, she's analytical, but she's still Ruby Rose. Besides, I'm sure she's this analytical in canon anyway. Most of Team RWBY's battle plans are hers, after all._

 _Still working on the complete stat system. The math is rather irritating to get right. Specifically the balancing between damage and survivability along with EXP Gain. This is worse than normal game development because there isn't a platform to test them on. It's all thought experiments and calculators. I also had to decide the general level range of the characters, seeing as my original intended levels were a bit too low for the system to work out nicely. So I bumped it up a bit. It's looking pretty good right now._

 _Thanks for the heavy support, guys. 'Till next time._

 _Seeya._


	3. Chapter 3: Overcomplicated Class Systems

**Chapter 3: Overcomplicated Class Systems**

 _A/N: Let's get right into it, shall we?_

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

 **Through continued practice, your Dancing Skill has levelled by 1!**

 **Dancing has improved your body coordination and flexibility, increasing your DEX by 1.**

 **Through continued use, your Acrobatics Skill has levelled by 1!**

 **Through continued practice, your Dancing Skill has levelled by 1!**

 **Through continued practice, your Dancing Skill has levelled by 1!**

 **Dancing has improved your body coordination and flexibility, increasing your DEX by 1.**

 **Prolonged exercise has improved your endurance, increasing your VIT by 1.**

"Status."

 **Ruby Rose  
Title: The Gamer  
Level: 2  
EXP: 0/200**

 **HP: 110/110  
HPR: 1.5/min**

 **STR: 4  
AGI: 10  
VIT: 4  
DEX: 9  
INT: 9  
WIS: 14  
LUK: 5**

 **Points: 5**

 **Condition: Normal  
Credits: 100 Lien**

Ruby was pooped out, but she felt it was totally worth it. Not only did she have oodles and oodles of fun Dancing (and Acrobat-ing), she had managed to level up her Skills and Attributes quite a bit.

The point that she had gained in VIT eliminated three of her equations for HP and HPR growth, leaving her with just three, with the correct solution confirmable with her next Level Up and one more point of VIT.

She had also noticed that her DEX had increased by one at Levels 2, 4, and 6 of her Dancing Skill, while her Acrobatics, which was at Level 3, had yet to provide any Agility aside from the one she had gotten before the dance session. If it gave her another point of Agility at the next Level, she could confirm her hypothesis that Skills provided Attributes at even Levels.

Of course, that was assuming they provided Attributes in the first place. Acting was Level 3 and hadn't given her anything when it had hit Level 2.

It was also noteworthy that even though Ruby felt tired, she knew that she could keep on Dancing if she wanted to. It was as if she could ignore that tiredness and still perform at an optimal level, something which she attributed to her Gamer's Body Skill. Video game characters may be tired, but they never showed it after all.

She wondered whether she could keep going on and on without any drawbacks. Seeing as it was still two hours before her bedtime, she decided to test that theory by flipping about like a maniac.

 **Through continued use, your Acrobatics Skill has levelled up by 1!**

 **Constant quick movements have improved your nimbleness, increasing your AGI by 1.**

 **Through continued use, your Acrobatics Skill has levelled up by 1!**

 **Prolonged exercise has improved your endurance, increasing your VIT by 1.**

It was after an hour or so since she started training her Acrobatics Skill that she felt something was wrong. Her body seemed kind of sluggish and a fog had settled onto her mind. She was then hit with a notification, which was accompanied by a tutorial.

 **You are now Tired. Your efficiency is reduced by 25%.**

 **Oops! Looks like you've overworked yourself! Your Condition monitors the state of your body and mind. The worse your Condition gets, the lower your efficiency will be. Efficiency includes your Attributes, how quickly you gain Skill Levels and your overall performance, so make sure you stay healthy! You can recover by resting.**

 **Tip: Increasing VIT will improve your physical stamina. Increasing INT will improve your mental stamina.**

That explained it. 'Status.'

 **Ruby Rose  
Title: The Gamer  
Level: 2  
EXP: 0/200**

 **HP: 120/120  
HPR: 1.7/min**

 **STR:** 4 **(3)  
AGI: **11 **(8)  
VIT: **5 **(4)  
DEX: **9 **(7)  
INT: **9 **(7)  
WIS: **14 **(11)  
LUK: 5**

 **Points: 5**

 **Condition: Tired  
Credits: 100 Lien**

This was new. So pushing too much too quickly would debuff her temporarily. Ruby noted that her HP and HPR, and LUK stats were untouched, meaning that VIT and LUK were the most effective Attributes when she was Tired. The Game also seemed to round stats up instead of down, but she assumed that was for display purposes only. It was far more likely that the actual values were exact.

Unable to resist finding out what would happen if she kept going, she kept grinding her Acrobatics Skill for the better part of half an hour.

 **Through continued use, your Acrobatics Skill has levelled up by 1!**

 **Constant quick movements have improved your nimbleness, increasing your AGI by 1.**

 **Prolonged exercise has improved your endurance, increasing your VIT by 1.**

 **You are now Exhausted. Your efficiency is reduced by 50%.**

 **Intense endurance training has improved your stamina, increasing your VIT by 1.**

At this point, her body was barely responding and her mind felt really heavy. She was sure that it was only her Gamer's Mind Skill that enabled her to think logically at this point.

"Status." She said tiredly.

 **Ruby Rose  
Title: The Gamer  
Level: 2  
EXP: 0/200**

 **HP: 140/140  
HPR: 2.1/min**

 **STR:** 4 **(2)  
AGI: **12 **(6)  
VIT: **7 **(4)  
DEX: **9 **(5)  
INT: **9 **(5)  
WIS: **14 **(7)  
LUK: 5**

 **Points: 5**

 **Condition: Exhausted  
Credits: 100 Lien**

"You know what?" Ruby muttered, closing the interface distastefully. "I'll deal with all this tomorrow."

Then she promptly crashed onto her bed and slept, sweaty clothing and all.

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

Waking up was definitely a novel experience for Ruby.

 **You have slept for 7 hours. Your HP and AP are fully recovered!**

 **Your Condition is now Normal.**

Her eyelids fluttered open, wondering what those words were doing. It took her a moment to recall yesterday's strange events. Right. Life was a video game now.

Reflexively closing the notifications, she immediately leapt out of the covers, completely free of any morning blues or over-attachments to her bed. It was a rather strange feeling to be moving about immediately after waking up and Ruby couldn't help but miss the lazy coziness that she was used to every morning.

Still, she supposed that it was a lot easier to leave the comforts of her morning sanctuary now, which saved her some time.

After taking a much needed shower and finishing off her morning routine with a bowl of cereal, Ruby was ready for the new day. "Status!"

 **Ruby Rose  
Title: The Gamer  
Level: 2  
EXP: 0/200**

 **HP: 140/140  
HPR: 2.1/min**

 **STR: 4  
AGI: 12  
VIT: 7  
DEX: 9  
INT: 9  
WIS: 14  
LUK: 5**

 **Points: 5**

 **Condition: Normal  
Credits: 100 Lien**

"Alrighty, then!" She chirped to herself. "Let's try to bring up the last two Attributes today."

She now knew how to raise her AGI, VIT, DEX, INT and WIS. If she could figure out STR and LUK, she would be able to devise a proper training plan.

"Strength's obvious enough..." Ruby muttered, frowning. "But how would I train my Luck?"

The first thing that came to mind would be actively participating in games of chance. The larger the bet, the bigger the payoff in the LUK department. But what was the minimum requirements to constitute a game of chance? Was actual money required, or would a lucky guess be enough?

After thinking on it, Ruby decided to determine the answer using coin flips. She positioned a 1 Lien coin on her thumb and flipped it into the air before catching it neatly.

"Heads." It was tails.

"Tails." The coin showed heads.

"Tails." Heads again.

"Tails." Finally, a correct answer.

She kept at it for the next twenty-five minutes, quickly growing bored out of her skull when finally-

 **Expertly manipulating a coin with your fingers has improved your manual dexterity, increasing your DEX by 1.**

'Not quite what I was looking for, but I'll take it.' Ruby thought dryly, before carrying on with the mind-numbing task. It took her another ten minutes before she achieved the results that she desired.

"Heads." It came up heads.

 **Continuously testing your luck has increased your LUK by 1.**

"Finally!" Ruby exclaimed. It took a long, long while, but there was finally some progress on the stat. It was very likely that the slow gain was due to the fact that there was no stakes involved. The wording of the notification had made it quite clear that she was only 'testing' her luck. Still, it meant that LUK could be trained without actually gambling, which was a good thing.

Ruby decided to keep doing it, as it raised both DEX and LUK. She had only been at it for five minutes when Yang came down the stairs, already dressed in her work clothes.

"Morning, Sis." Yang said. "You're up early today. Dad already left?"

"Oh, hey Yang!" Ruby greeted the blonde with a smile. "Yeah, he was gone when I woke up. Are you leaving for work now?"

"After breakfast." Yang replied, before stifling a yawn. She then proceeded to rifle through the cupboards. "We got any cereal left?"

"On the table." The younger sister answered, going back to flipping her coin.

"Thanks."

After grabbing some milk from the fridge, the blonde decided to join Ruby at the table, who was focusing intently.

"Heads." Tails.

"Heads." Heads.

"Tails." Heads.

Yang's eye twitched.

"Heads." Tails.

"Just _what_ in the name of Oum are you doing, Sis?"

Ruby looked up, not stopping from her task. "I'm testing my luck, Yang. Heads."

Tails.

"Ooooo...kay?" Yang said, sounding a bit uncertain. "Any particular reason?"

"Testing my luck can improve my luck." Ruby explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, before her eyes lit up. She had the perfect opportunity to see whether actually gambling was more effective!. "Say, Yang... Wanna play a game?

"Uh, sure. Go on." Yang replied in between mouthfuls of cereal.

"We'll bet this coin. If you win, it's yours, and if I win, it's mine."

"Isn't it already yours?" Yang asked, raising an eyebrow. "Doesn't that mean you won't get anything if you win?"

"That's not the point!" Ruby puffed, her cheeks red. "And I do too get something! I get to not lose this magnificent, beautiful coin that I'm sure you want!"

"Rubes, I make two thousand of those coins everyday." Yang deadpanned.

"Maybe so, but now you have the opportunity to make two thousand and _one_!" Ruby waggled her eyebrows suggestively.

"Two thousand and _one_ , Yang." She repeated, wiggling her fingers this time.

" _Two thousand and ooooonnnnneeeeeee~"_ She had plopped onto the table in front of Yang.

Yang's eye twitched. Ruby's face was suddenly waaaaay too close. And why was she wiggling her fingers? Was that supposed to entice her or something?

Unable to bear watching her sister do... whatever it was she was doing any longer, Yang threw her hands up in the air in surrender. "Fine, fine, whatever. Have it your way, Sis."

"Yay!"

"Just let it be known that I didn't swindle my little sister by choice." The blonde declared, to which Ruby hastily nodded.

"Of course! Heads or tails, call it in the air." The younger girl said excitedly. "Ready?"

Yang nodded, deciding to indulge her baby sister.

"Alrighty then." Ruby said, before flipping the coin high into the air. "Call!"

"Heads." Yang said as Ruby snatched the coin mid-drop.

Tails.

 **Winning your first game of chance against the odds has increased your LUK by 1!**

"Guess it's just two thousand Lien today, Yang." Ruby teased, happy with getting some solid results. LUK could indeed be raised faster when actually betting something.

Wait, wasn't Heads or Tails a 50-50 game? Why would it be against the odds?

"Oh no. Whatever will I do now?" The blonde drawled in a perfect monotone, distracting her from her train of thought.

"Oh, stuff it Yang." Ruby laughed. "You'll get your chance again tomorrow."

"Tomorrow too? Am I going to have to worry about you getting addicted to gambling, Sis?" Yang asked, a worried frown on her face.

"Maybe." Ruby admitted. "But don't worry! I won't make any stupid bets."

"I'd say that bet you just made was pretty damn stupid." Yang muttered under her breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing, Sis!" Yang laughed nervously, before standing up and washing her bowl. "Anyway, I think I'm gonna have to leave now. A client said he needed me to be there stat."

Ruby's eyes widened. Of course! Yang probably had a higher LUK stat than she did! She looked at Yang's retreating back and said, "Observe."

 **Yang Xiao Long  
Title: Little Dragon  
Level: 19**

 **HP: 1305/1305  
AP: 265/265**

 **STR: 43  
AGI: 42  
VIT: 34  
DEX: 17  
INT: 9  
WIS: 26  
LUK: 18**

 **Through continued use, your Observe Skill has levelled up by 1!**

Ruby was boggled at the difference between her and her sister. First, at the levels, then the HP, then the stats. Aside from her low INT (Ha! Ruby was just as smart as her sister!), Yang had her far outclassed in every single statistic. Quite frankly, Ruby was surprised she had even won the coin toss considering Yang had three times her LUK.

"See ya later, Sis." Yang exited the room.

"Bye!"

Now that Ruby was left alone to think, she quickly devised a quick plan. Whenever she was travelling or not doing anything, she should be flipping the coin for maximum gain. That way her LUK and DEX could improve even when nothing was going on.

Feeling proud of her idea, she kept flipping her coin, which had almost become a secondary reflex by now anyways. What to do now?

"I guess it wouldn't hurt to do some strength training." Ruby mused. "But with what?"

The family weights were off-limits to her without supervision, seeing as she had once managed to somehow trap herself under the barbell. Which was totally not her fault, by the way.

So the next best option was obviously to lift heavy rocks somewhere by the roadside, where no one would know where she was if she ever got trapped under them. It was brilliant!

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

Okay, so maybe not so brilliant. Finding heavy rocks was proving to be harder than she thought.

She had gone off the beaten path in search for a rock big enough to constitute as strength training _twice_ , and nope. Nothing. It was as if the entire island of Patch was devoid of large, crumbly stones just to spite her. She hadn't managed to find a single one even after two hours of searching.

Frustrated, Ruby decided to just head to a nearby village to get some lunch, since both Dad and Yang were out.

On the plus side, she had kept up the coin flipping during those two hours and managed to increase her DEX and LUK by 1 each. She realized, though, that it was starting to take much longer to do so.

Ruby sighed. Maybe she should just try to raise her other Stats until Yang or her Dad got back before trying to raise her STR-

"Help! Please help!"

Startled out of her thoughts, she immediately spun to the source of the cry. She spied a brown-haired girl who couldn't be any older than seven running towards her, smudged and having a few stray leaves strewn in her hair.

Ruby recognized the girl as a member of the village she was heading towards. Lilka, one of the daughters of the local barkeep.

"Lilka?" She immediately moved towards the girl. "What's wrong?"

"R-Ruby! Leita's in trouble!" The young girl had a panicked look in her eye. "She was- we were-"

"Calm down, Lilka!" Ruby held her shoulders. " Take a deep breath and tell me what's going on."

"W-we were in the forest, and a G-Grimm came!" Lilka sniffed. "And, and Leita pushed me out of the way and told me to g-get help!"

Ruby froze. That sounded somewhat familiar. A notification appeared.

 **Quest: Rescue Leita!**

 **Description: Lilka and Leita were out playing in the Evergreen Woods when a Grimm attacked. Rescue Leita from the grasp of death!**

 **Rewards: 1,500 EXP, ?**

 **Do you wish to accept?**

Accepting the quest without really looking at it, Ruby quickly turned to Lilka. "Where is she?"

"I-I'll bring you there!" Lilka replied.

Ruby shook her head. "I'll be faster alone and I can't guarantee you'll be safe. Just point me in the right direction."

Lilka bit her lip, clearly wanting to help, but realizing Ruby was right.

"S-She's that way!" She pointed towards the Evergreen Woods. "W-We were near the river when the Grimm c-came, so she should be around there!"

Ruby took off towards the forest without a second thought.

 **You have performed a Special Action! By running at maximum speed, you have unlocked a new Skill!**

 **Sprint (Active) – Level: 1**

 **Description: Sometimes just running isn't enough. Increases your Movement Speed by 100% while Active.**

 **Cost: 120 AP/min. Can use HP to cast.**

This was a useful Skill, even if it was rather risky to use at the moment. But what other choice did she have?

Fervently hoping that it wouldn't chunk 120 HP immediately, she activated the skill.

"Sprint!"

Aside from an incredible boost in her legs enabling her to cover twice the distance in the same amount of time, a Health Bar appeared.

 **Ruby Rose  
HP: 138/140**

She was thanking every deity up there that the Sprint Skill did not immediately leave her with 20HP remaining.

At least she was making good time. Hopefully she'd be able to get there before Leita was killed...

 **Through continuous use, your Sprint Skill has levelled up by 1!**

 **Pushing your body to run faster has enhanced your speed, increasing your AGI by 1.**

Ruby felt grateful more than anything, but a quick check of her Health Bar showed that her HP was still decreasing at a rapid rate.

 **Ruby Rose  
HP: 118/140**

It was another twenty seconds before Ruby had managed to find the river that Lilka had mentioned. She feared for the child, seeing as she had been left alone with a Grimm for at least a few minutes.

 **Through continuous use, your Sprint Skill has levelled up by 1!**

Ignoring the notification, she looked around furiously for Leita, before suddenly sensing a wave of killing intent coming from her left.

 **You have performed a Special Action! By sensing the killing intent of a creature, you have unlocked a new Skill!**

 **Detect Bloodthirst (Passive) – Level: 1**

 **Description: Hatred breeds hatred. This Skill permits the sensing of bloodlust in the surrounding area. Levelling it up improves range, precision and sensitivity. Higher levels allow identification of the source.**

There she was! By some miracle, Leita was still alive, though it didn't look like it was going to hold true for much longer. Stalking slowly up to her was a single Beowolf, which was strange, seeing as they normally fought in packs.

Without really thinking, Ruby quickly ran over to the young raven-haired girl, who was barely standing and looking worse for wear. With several open wounds and her knees shaking from exhaustion, she was surely on the verge of collapsing.

The Beowolf, surprised that another human had entered the fray, leapt back warily while eyeing her. It was larger than both Ruby and Leita combined.

Those were bad signs. Both Dad and Yang had told her that if a Grimm was big and behaved cautiously, it was likely old and thus had learnt to survive. It was even worse because this Beowolf had done so _without_ a pack.

Reacting quickly, she deactivated Sprint and Observed the malevolent creature before her.

 **Lone Beowolf  
Level: 30**

 **HP: 996/1000**

 **STR: 43  
AGI: 21  
VIT: 34  
DEX: 25  
INT: 7  
WIS: 15  
LUK: 5**

And that was how Ruby found out she was in way over her head. She checked her Health Bar.

 **Ruby Rose  
HP: 73/140**

Yep. _Waaaaaaaaay_ over her head. There was no way she was going to be able to take this thing out.

"Leita, you're gonna have to trust me, okay?" Ruby murmured to the side quietly, hoping the young girl wouldn't freak out.

"O...okay." The girl replied, her voice quivering.

"We're going to have to run. I can't kill it. Don't struggle when I pick you up." Ruby instructed her, keeping her eyes trained on the wolf Grimm. "Alright?"

"A-alright."

The ridiculously overlevelled Beowolf circled the two defenceless girls carefully. Ruby made sure to maintain her position between Leita and the Grimm.

Its red eyes locked onto hers.

Ruby stared back defiantly.

The Grimm lunged.

Ruby immediately burst into action. Grabbing Leita bridal-style, she quickly leapt high onto the Beowolf's head, barely avoiding its claws, before kicking off it and somersaulting behind it.

Thank Monty her Acrobatics skill was Level 6, or she would never have been able to pull that off.

"Sprint!" She activated, immediately running back the way she came.

It was her only chance at the moment. The Beowolf had higher AGI than she did, but Sprint _doubled_ her movement speed, plus her manoeuvre had bought them some time.

Besides, with her HP being so low, the Grimm was likely to one-shot her if it got a clean hit in anyways. There probably wouldn't be a difference between 73 HP and 1 HP at that point.

Turning back, she spied the Beowolf in hot pursuit, though she was managing to gain some distance.

She hoped that her HP would be able to last long enough for the Grimm to lose interest in them. Ruby glanced at her HP.

 **Ruby Rose  
HP: 51/140**

It was not looking good. At most she'd make it out the woods and back where she started, but that would put Lilka in danger as well if the Beowolf followed them there.

She looked back. The Beowolf was much further behind now, but it was hot on their heels.

Her HP was getting dangerously low too.

 **Ruby Rose  
HP: 27/140**

She couldn't afford to turn Sprint off at this point. If the Beowolf noticed her slowing down, that would be the end of them.

 **Through continued use, your Detect Bloodthirst Skill has levelled up by 1!**

Not really helpful at the moment, but great.

 **Carrying heavy weights has developed your muscles, increasing your STR by 1.**

 **Discovering a way to increase every Attribute has added to your knowledge, increasing your INT by 1.**

Nice, but still not helpful in any way at the moment. If only there was some way to restore some health...

It was then that she remembered that there was something in her Inventory that just might help. A cookie that she had been given for wisely completing the Tutorial.

'Oh please please please, let this restore some HP.' Ruby pleaded to whoever might be listening.

"Inventory."

She frantically selected the cookie without her hands, which quite frankly she didn't know was possible, so she learnt something new even in this desperate scenario. Possibly her last bit of knowledge before her imminent death.

 **Cookie  
Description: Baked sugary goodness often used to persuade people to join the Dark Side. Restores 100 HP when consumed.**

 **Do you wish to use it?**

'Oh sweet, delicious salvation, yes, yes, a thousand times yes!'

 **You ate the Cookie. You have restored 100 HP!**

The sensation of a warm, freshly baked chocolate chip cookie entered her mouth. Just for the sake of maximising whatever time she had left on Remnant, Ruby used Discern Taste.

 **The Cookie was made from Chocolate and Sugar!**

'I would never have guessed.' Ruby thought dryly, glancing at her now refilled health bar.

 **Ruby Rose  
HP: 116/140**

Still, she had some HP again, which was fantastic. She might just be able to survive this disastrous situation.

She entered the open clearing a few seconds later and spotted Lilka, who was gaping at her.

"Lilka, the Beowolf's behind us! I'm going to pick you up, so don't fight back, please!" Ruby yelled out to the girl.

Lilka nodded mutely, and in the next two seconds, Ruby had shifted Leita onto one shoulder while picking Lilka up with her other arm.

 **Through continued use, your Sprint Skill has levelled up by 1!**

 **Pushing your body to run faster has enhanced your Speed, increasing your AGI by 1.**

That was perfect timing for an AGI bonus. Ruby turned back to check if the Beowolf was still following them. She could sense its bloodlust from beyond the woods, but she was unsure whether it was still heading towards them.

To be safe, Ruby kept Sprinting along the road towards the village of Pumpotatokin, putting as much distance as possible between her and the Evergreen Woods.

 **Carrying heavy weights has developed your muscles, increasing your STR by 1.**

She was approximately halfway to the village when she suddenly dropped and fainted, sending the two girls tumbling forward.

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

 **You ran out of HP in a non-combat situation. As a result, you have blacked out for a short period of time.**

 **Pushing your body to the extreme has increased your VIT by 1.**

 **Your Condition is now Tired. Your efficiency is reduced by 25%.**

"Ruby...? Are you awake?" A young girl's voice called out.

"Wha...?" Ruby opened her eyes and moaned dizzily, before the world came into focus again.

She was lying by the roadside on some grass. Lilka and Leita were standing over her, their eyes filled with concern.

"How long was I out?" Ruby asked weakly. Being Tired sucked. Why hadn't she kept an eye on her health bar like a good Gamer was supposed to?

"I'm not sure. Ten minutes?" Lilka answered with a cute frown.

Leita at age nine was the elder of the two sisters and corrected the other girl calmly, "It was closer to fifteen, I think."

Ruby sat up and nodded. "Leita, are you alright? How bad are your wounds?"

"Hurts a little." Leita said with a wince. "But I'm alright."

"That's good." Ruby said, before pausing awkwardly. "Uh, not that it's good it hurts, but it's good that you're alright, I mean."

"I got it." Leita assured her with a smile.

Ruby was suddenly tackled by a hug from Lilka, catching her off guard.

"You saved Leita, Ruby. Thank you, thank you, thank you!" Lilka's cries were muffled by her clothing, but Ruby understood it anyway.

"Yes." Leita gave her a quick hug too. "Thank you for saving my life."

 **Rescue Leita – Quest Complete!**

 **Rewards: 1,500 EXP, Increased Influence on Leita and Lilka**

 **Bonus Objective not met.**

 **You have gained 4 Levels! You are now Level 6.**

Ruby blinked before closing the notification. That was a lot of EXP and levels. Then again, that was a really high levelled Beowolf. She hadn't noticed how high the reward was earlier.

 **Congratulations, you have reached Level 5! The Class System has now been unlocked. Head over to the Classes page for more details.**

While she was sorely tempted to open the Classes page immediately (it sounded so _cool!_ ), she decided to deal with the two kids first.

Ruffling Lilka's hair, she announced, "Alright, girls. Let's get you two home." She turned to the injured girl. "Leita, can you walk?"

"Yes." The black-haired girl nodded. "I could hide from the Beowulf for a while so it only managed to hit me a few times."

Ruby's eyes widened. 'A few times? The girl should be dead! And how do you even hide from a Beowolf?"

Just to check, Ruby Observed her.

 **Leita Salk  
Title: Dark Child  
Level: 2**

 **HP: 94/150  
AP: 41/150**

 **STR: 3  
AGI: 6  
VIT: 8  
DEX: 7  
INT: 18  
WIS: 5  
LUK: 55**

The girl had her Aura unlocked _and_ she was smarter than Ruby too! And what was with the obscene amount of LUK?

Our Gamer resisted the urge to wail. This was so unfair! But this wasn't about her at the moment, so she decided to save her ranting for later.

"So, uhh... Leita. Did you happen to glow or anything earlier?"

"I'm not sure. I think there was some black smoke or something when the Beowolf hit me, but that didn't hurt all that much. Then it couldn't find me for a while until the smoke went away."

Ruby nodded. "That's your Aura, and maybe your Semblance protecting you."

Leita's looked at her in surprise. "Aura? But I thought you had to be a Hunter to have Aura."

"Sometimes, under extreme stress and by having the correct mentality, a person's Aura can be unlocked." Ruby explained, having heard it from her Dad. "The Beowolf attack must've triggered it."

"That's so cool!" Lilka gushed. "Maybe I should try getting it too!"

"No!" Ruby reprimanded her quickly, causing the girl to recoil back in surprise. "It's really, really dangerous to unlock your Aura like that. If it doesn't show up, you die! She turned to Leita. "You're incredibly lucky to be alive, you know that?"

The black-haired nodded sombrely, showing that yes, she did know that.

Ruby stood up, satisfied. "Okay then, enough of the heavy stuff. We should get going."

 **Quest: Escort Leita and Lilka to The Wild West!**

 **Description: Now that both Leita and Lilka are safe, return them to Aru at The Wild West in Pumpotatokin Village.**

 **Rewards: 500 EXP, ?, ?**

 **Do you wish to accept?** 'Yes.'

Ruby patted herself down before pointing straight down the road. "Okay, forward march!"

"Wrong way." Leita told her.

"Backwards march!"

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

Since the journey to the village would take about half an hour with the two girls in tow, Ruby decided to head over to the Classes page to find out what was new.

 **Welcome to the Classes page! Here is a brief explanation on the Class System.**

 **Classes  
** **A Class represents your role in the game and provides a bonus to their respective Class expertise. However, it does not dictate who you are or what you do. For example, a Fighter may rely heavily on magic if he chooses to, or a Wizard could tote Guns and Swords. The possibilities are endless!**

 **Classes are divided into four Tiers. The Classes available for each Tier will be revealed at certain Levels so you can plan ahead. If you fulfil the requirements to unlock a Class before you reach the Level threshold, they will automatically be revealed.**

 **Tier 1: Level 5**

 **Tier 2: Level 10**

 **Tier 3: Level 20**

 **Tier 4: Level 40**

 **However, you will have to meet the requirements of a Class before you can equip it, so plan wisely! You can have up to two Classes equipped at a time, so stay classy now.**

 **Tip: Only Base Attributes count towards the Attribute Requirement of the Classes.**

'That's interesting.' Ruby thought. '...and unnecessarily complicated.'

It was just the beginning.

 **Class Skills and Levels  
** **Each Class has a unique Class Skill available to them. These start out weak, but can be improved by Levelling up the Class.**

 **Classes need to be equipped in order to gain EXP. They gain the same amount of EXP as your Base Level, but have different EXP requirements for Levelling. If two Classes are equipped, both gain EXP at a 100% rate. The Maximum Level a Class can reach is 20.**

 **When a Class reaches Level 10, Legacy Skills become available. These are weaker versions of the Class Skill but have the benefit of being permanently added to your Skill List. Legacy Skills and Class Skills do not stack.**

Okay, so that was kinda cool. 'Next.'

The Tutorial closed, bringing the Classes page to the forefront.

 **Current Class: None**

 **Tier 1**

Ruby selected the only option she had available. 'Tier 1.'

 **Novice – Level: 0**

 **Requirements: All Attributes 10**

 **Class Skill: Eager to Learn (Passive)**

 **Description: Everyone starts out small. You have to walk before you can run. Novices are keen to be taught and thus take away more from life's experiences. Increases EXP Gain by 1%**

There was only one Class in Tier 1. It made her wonder why the Game bothered to create an entire Tier just for that one Class.

Worse still, she couldn't even equip it yet, seeing as it was greyed out. What a let down. Grumbling inwardly, she brought up the Status page to see what else she needed before she met the requirements for the Class.

 **Ruby Rose  
Title: The Gamer  
Level: 6  
EXP: 100/600**

 **HP: 62/230  
HPR: 3.1/min**

 **STR:** 6 **(5)  
AGI: **14 **(11)  
VIT: **8 **(6)  
DEX: **11 **(8)  
INT: **10 **(7)  
WIS: **14 **(11)  
LUK: 8**

 **Points: 25**

 **Condition: Tired  
Credits: 100 Lien**

She was lacking 4 points of STR, and 2 points of VIT and LUK. While she could easily cover them with her available Attribute Points, it was still rather easy to increase those missing stats, and the points she had were a finite resource that should be used at a much later time when her Attribute gain slowed considerably anyway.

Well, seeing as there were two girls who could be used for weight training right here...

"Hey, you guys want a piggyback ride?"

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

 _A/N: How many references can you spot?_

 _I've also introduced the massively overcomplicated Class System, which actually only sounds complicated, but isn't. It's not. Really._

 _This chapter is still just a prelude, as are all early chapters in every story. Unless you start in media res of course, but this one obviously doesn't._

 _'Till next time._


	4. Chapter 4: Drifting

**Chapter 4: Drifting**

 _A/N: The feedback and support is heartening. Systems are getting more intricate. Note to self, balancing offence and defence is really difficult to do in a game._

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

Ruby was rather disappointed when she had to let the girls off her back when they arrived at the gate of Pumpotatokin Village. Maybe it was because she was Tired, but she had only gotten 1 point of STR for her efforts over the past half an hour. It was a pale comparison to before, seeing as she had gotten 2 points of STR in a matter of minutes.

Then again, her STR had only been sitting at 4, so maybe there was a huge effect between values.

She subsequently realized that it made much more sense than she had first thought. Of course it was going to be harder! She had grown 50% stronger, so the weight of the two girls weren't considered to be as strenuous as before. That would cut down her growth rate severely. Plus, the whole Tired thing.

That would make STR possibly the easiest to quantify and train, though. Start with weights that were considered heavy, but liftable, and move up by the same percentage as the growth in STR.

Either way, she hadn't made much progress during the trip, so yes, she was disappointed.

"Ruby, you're going the wrong way!" Lilka pulled at the girl's shirt.

Snapping out of her thoughts, Ruby noticed that she had indeed missed a turn.

"Sorry, I got a little bit distracted." She scratched the back of her head apologetically, before turning around and following their lead. The two younger girls knew the village like the back of their hand, which was fitting, seeing as they lived here.

To make the most of the travel time, Ruby took out her trusty coin and fiddled with it in a way that was quickly becoming familiar; Heads or Tails.

"What are you doing?" Leita asked, her tone marked with curiosity.

"Just testing my luck. Testing my luck improves my luck." Ruby explained factually, to which Leita responded by looking at her funnily.

"Is that really true?" The girl asked sceptically.

"It is for me." Ruby shrugged, before being hit with an idea. Leita had an insane amount of luck, so she should do what she did with Yang with her to gain more LUK!

"Say, Leita. Wanna play a game?"

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

Over the course of the next few minutes, Ruby learnt that it was never a good idea to gamble against anyone with approximately ten times her LUK. While winning a toss immediately improved her LUK stat by 1, the chances of it happening were minimal and she felt her supply of Lien steadily decreasing, even when Leita had decided that Ruby should get back one coin from the other girl's growing stack whenever she managed to win. Leita, in a moment of mercy, had amended the rules in pity of Ruby's thinning wallet.

 **Winning a game of chance against overwhelming odds has increased your LUK by 1.**

 **Winning a game of chance against overwhelming odds has increased your LUK by 1.**

 **Winning a game of chance against overwhelming odds has increased your LUK by 1.**

 **Winning a game of chance against overwhelming odds has increased your LUK by 1.**

 **Winning a game of chance against overwhelming odds has increased your LUK by 1.**

By the time the trio arrived at The Wild West Bar and Bistro, Ruby was already down 95 Lien; though it was 95 Lien well spent in her opinion. This was by _far_ the easiest way to gain any Attribute at this point. She had raised her LUK by five points in an equal amount of minutes!

If she were to be honest she found it borderline cheating. But hey, if there was something she could exploit to easily make her stronger, she was sure as Dust going to do it! This was her life now, after all.

It was only when Ruby looked at her remaining 5 Lien that she realized that she no longer had enough money to buy lunch.

Cue the absolute depression.

The two younger girls waltzed into the dusty, old-fashioned bar with Ruby trailing miserably behind them. The premise was empty save for one or two customers, which was typical of a bar well before lunchtime.

Ruby scanned the surrounding area, digging the retro pictures and western paraphernalia that decorated the bar. She had only been inside the bar once before with Yang a couple of years back. Our heroine had been only nine or ten then, so she could barely recall much about the place. She remembered being escorted outside by a gruff looking man when a brawl started though, just before Dad was called to collect her.

Yang, of course, had been nowhere to be found. Ruby had been understandably panicked, seeing as her big sister was missing. Her fears had only been successfully alleviated when she was allowed back into the bar after the ruckus had stopped.

The prodigious blonde girl, at a mere twelve years of age, had been standing over one of the many men she had knocked out, a victorious smirk plastered on her adolescent face as she greeted Ruby with a cheeky, "Oh, hey Sis!" It was one of her fondest and strangest memories.

Ruby smiled nostalgically to herself, reminiscing of the old days when she had constantly followed Yang around in her mischief-making; long before the older girl had enrolled into Signal, of course.

Her brief bout of recollection was interrupted by a friendly, if rather hoarse, voice. "Haven't seen your face in this part of town in a while, little lady."

She was greeted by the sight of a middle-aged, muscular blond male with a crooked, affable smile that she had seen around once in a while.

"Aru?" She ventured a guess. "Or is it Sal?"

"It's Aru today." The older man chuckled. "Sal's out of town for the week."

"Sorry, I can't really differentiate between you two." Ruby apologized. Well, with Observe she technically could, but that was cheating and totally didn't count.

"It's fine. We're used to it." Aru shrugged nonchalantly. "We haven't been twins for the past thirty-five years for nothing. So what brings you here today, little lady?"

"Just returning a couple of things that belong to you safely." Ruby said dryly, indicating her head to the two younger girls on either side of her.

"Ruby saved Leita from a Beowolf!" Lilka told him excitedly.

"That's nic- _what?!"_ The man's paled, before turning to the silver-eyed girl. "Please, explain before I have a stroke."

So Ruby did. She told him everything from her chance meeting with Lilka to her collapsing from exhaustion, omitting anything to do with the Game, of course. It wouldn't do to have Aru walk off in the middle of the explanation. As she recounted the events, Ruby realized just exactly how lucky Leita was. The number of coincidences that led to her survival was absolutely stunning.

Firstly, Ruby just so happened to be in the vicinity.

Secondly, Lilka happened to stumble into Ruby within ten seconds of leaving the forest.

Third, her Aura had managed to activate during her survival bout with the Grimm.

Fourth, her Semblance just so happened to allow her to hide from the Lone Beowolf.

Fifth, Ruby had learnt Sprint and Detect Bloodlust, enabling her to locate Leita moments before she ran out of Aura.

Sixth, Ruby's Acrobatics Skill was sufficient enough to dodge the Beowolf's lunge and give them a head start.

Finally, Ruby had a Cookie in her Inventory that just so happened to restore HP, letting them get away safely.

Had any one of those events not happened, the outcome would've been drastically different. The million dollar question was thus;

Did the Game 'save' Leita before Ruby had arrived because of the Quest, or had Leita's incredible LUK miraculously influenced the outcome in her favour?

It was a matter of whether the Game imposed its standards on everyone else for the Gamer, or whether the LUK stat affected the circumstances involved. Would every scenario be manufactured specifically for the Gamer, or would everyone else's state of affairs play a part in determining what happened in Remnant?

How exactly did LUK work? Did it manipulate the circumstances or the user? Did it change the rest of the would to favour one person, or did it simply put the person in better situations by subtly manipulating their actions? With a high enough LUK, would other people be influenced by it too? Perhaps like how Ruby had been at the right place at the right time to save Leita?

Either way, LUK seemed to be an extremely valuable Attribute.

'Then again,' Ruby mentally rolled her eyes, 'So is every other Attribute, with perhaps the exception of STR. It's nice to have, but it doesn't seem as useful as the others.'

AGI dictated how fast she moved, and speed was usually the deciding factor in winning battles (or running away, as evidenced from earlier). VIT determined how much damage she could take and how quickly she could heal it off, and it affected her physical stamina to boot. The more she had, the more she could train her other physical Attributes. DEX not only affected her coordination, which helped with evading attacks and reacting to them, but supposedly also added to the damage of her ranged attacks and the accuracy of everything in general.

The two mental stats were also just as important. INT measured her learning rate, her Max AP and how capable her mind was. WIS was the main factor in determining how she used her INT while also playing a large part in AP regeneration, which meant that the two should be levelled together for maximum effectiveness.

And now there was LUK, which possibly altered the world to better suit her needs. Potentially the most powerful stat.

Ruby understood that she would have to make a choice as to what to focus on at some point. She would one day have to decide on one or two key Attributes that would be the cornerstone of her build.

But alas, she had finished recounting the tale of Leita and the Beowolf to Aru, and thus her introspection had to be saved for a later day.

Aru was looking grim. Not Grimm, but grim, because that would be scary. Not to say he wasn't scary enough.

He fixed the two girls with a stern look on his face. "Haven't I told you two to stay inside the Village? Not only did I nearly lose the both of you, Ruby could have been killed too."

Lilka and Leita squirmed uncomfortably at that thought, their eyes downcast.

"That said, I'm glad you're both safe." Aru knelt and hugged them both. "Leita, I'm especially proud of you for protecting your sister-"

Leita gave a small smile at that, as did Ruby.

"-but you're both still grounded." The bartender told them, causing the two younger girls to slump in defeat. "For a month."

If it were even possible, the two girls deflated further upon hearing the duration of their punishment.

"Now, I'm sure you're both thirsty after all that." Aru said, not unkindly. "Why don't you two go and get a drink while I talk to Ruby here."

Recognizing a dismissal when they heard one (and also because they really were thirsty), the two girls solemnly left for the kitchen.

With the two girls gone, the bartender suddenly looked much older. He turned to Ruby with an indescribable look on his face. "As for you..."

"I may not be your father, but it was a foolish thing you did." Aru told her, before quickly adding. "Not that I'm not grateful, but you could've been killed, little lady."

Ruby nodded solemnly. She knew exactly how close she had been to death, thanks to her health bar. "I know, but I couldn't _not_ do anything, you know? Lilka was crying and there was no time, so I had to do something-"

"And for that, I thank you from the bottom of my heart." Aru chuckled. He glanced towards the kitchen door where the two girls had left. "They may not be my own flesh and blood, but those two girls are the most important things in my life."

"They're not your daughters?" Ruby asked, surprised, to which the older man laughed.

"If you haven't noticed, little lady, I'm blonde, and the two scamps have brown and black hair. I picked 'em up from the streets a few years back. My last name's Sulato, theirs is Salk."

"...Oh." Ruby said, slightly embarrassed. She had always assumed they were blood-related.

Aru chuckled and ruffled her hair. "They're still my daughters in every way that counts. Family is more than just blood, little lady."

Ruby could see how much truth there was in that statement in the smile on the older man's face. It was the same even with Yang and Mom...

 **You have gained some insight into one of life's truths, increasing your WIS by 1.**

Ruby quickly shook the thought away before she reopened those old wounds. It was best to leave Pandora's Box alone.

"So what are you going to do about Leita's Aura?" Ruby ventured, if only to distract herself. "I think she's going to need some training to control it."

"I was thinking I'd ask your pops or that old crow to come by and help out." Aru admitted, rubbing the back of his neck. "Both of 'em need to pay their tabs anyway."

"I'll let Dad know when I see him." She offered helpfully, before making to stand up. Seeing as she ran out of money, she was going to need to head back home and raid her house kitchen for lunch.

"I'd appreciate that, little lady." The older man said in gratitude. "Why don't you stay for lunch?"

"I would if I could, but I'm broke." Ruby said, rather abashed. "See, I kinda lost my food allowance to Leita on the way here. Not that I'd be able to afford eating here anyways. I only had enough for a sandwich."

Aru raised an amused eyebrow. "You wagered something against her, didn't you?"

To say Ruby was surprised was an understatement. "How'd you guess?"

"Girl's got the devil's luck." The blonde laughed. "I haven't won a single bet against her yet. Stopped trying after the tenth time she took the meat right off my plate."

"Observe." Ruby couldn't resist.

 **Aru Sulato  
Title: None  
Level: 14**

 **HP: 670/670**

 **STR: 26  
AGI: 15  
VIT: 33  
DEX: 25  
INT: 13  
WIS: 34  
LUK: 2**

Aru was without a doubt the unluckiest person she had met so far. Even Ruby had started out at Level 1 with a higher LUK than he did! Which begged the question; if he claimed to bet so much, shouldn't his LUK have improved as well?

"Maybe you're just unlucky." Ruby hinted aloud, tilting her head sideways and closing the Observe screen with a thought.

Aru snorted. "Understatement of the century, little lady. I've only won a bet once in my whole stinking life. It took half of my life savings after that to figure out that my luck was crap and that it wasn't gonna change no matter how many games I play."

Well, that explained it. His LUK was likely so low in comparison to his competition that he had an extraordinarily low chance of winning to begin with. Factor in being the unlucky outlier in the normal distribution curve and you'd get a man who would only ever win one bet in his life. Namely, Aru.

"Well, she's probably as lucky as you're unlucky." Ruby remarked. "We just tossed a coin and played Heads or Tails for one Lien per game. I think she won ninety-five times more than I did, and I only won five."

"Which, naturally, left you without a single Lien in your pocket." Aru finished with an understanding grin.

"Oh, no. I still have five. All of five Lien." Ruby mentioned with a straight face, before slumping forward and muttering sarcastically. "Some kind of feast I'll be able to afford with that. I can't even afford a slice of bread."

"You'll get your feast alright." Aru remarked, chuckling. "Lunch is on the house today, little lady. Just pick whatever you want off the menu and I'll whip it up, free of charge. It's the least I could do."

"Um, that's really nice of you to offer, but you don't have to pay me back or anything!" Ruby refuted the offer immediately, waving her arms. Admittedly, a small (okay, large, if she were to be honest) part of her was sorely tempted to accept it. But she would be strong and fight off the temptation of free food!

"Nonsense, little lady. I won't take no for an answer, unless you got something against my cooking, of course." Aru said, cracking a smile. "I hear my specialty is to die for, though."

"What specialty?" She asked, her curiosity piqued. Just because she wasn't going to accept it didn't mean she didn't want to know!

"Strawberry Steak, of course."

Ruby immediately caved, though she at least _tried_ to look hesitant, though it was a little hard for her to do when her mouth was already salivating at the thought. "Well... if you insist."

Aru laughed. "You're not fooling anyone with that face, little lady. I've seen through better actors when it comes to starving stomachs. So I assume you want to try the special?"

Our Gamer nodded sheepishly, causing Aru to chuckle and head towards the kitchen. "Alright then. It'll be ready in a bit, so sit tight."

'Note to self. Level up Acting Skill.' Ruby thought wryly. A notification prompted her away from her deliberations.

 **Quest Complete: Escort Leita and Lilka to The Wild West!**

 **Reward: 500 EXP, Increased Influence with Aru and Sal, Increased Reputation with Patch Island, Increased Renown in Vale**

 **Bonus: Aru has given you lunch on the house! +80 EXP**

 **You have gained a level! You are now Level 7.**

A new message popped up.

 **So you've gotten more popular with people. What does it all mean? Influence, Reputation and Renown are indicators of your social progression and are affected by your words, actions or inactions. Here's a quick rundown of what they do.**

 **Influence – Influence represents how much sway you have over a person as an individual as well as how they feel about you.**

 **Reputation – Reputation represents how you are perceived and treated by the people of any particular location or faction as a whole.**

 **Renown – Renown represents your current standing and how well-known you are in a Kingdom.**

 **If you want an indicator of how famous (or infamous) you are, Soft Command 'Social'.**

 **Tip: There is no way to gauge Influence accurately, so beware of those who may not be who they seem to be!**

As per usual, Ruby immediately opened up the newly revealed feature to check it out. 'Social.'

 **Reputation**

 **Patch Island – Friendly**

 **Renown**

 **Vale – Unknown  
Atlas – Unknown  
Mistral – Unknown  
Vacuo – Unknown**

'That's hardly anything at the moment.' Ruby thought glumly. Well, at least it told her how the people of Patch saw her. Or was it how they treated her? There was no way to tell unless it changed into something more definitive.

Maybe the feature would prove to be more useful in the future, but for now it would be gathering figurative dust, and not the useful kind either.

Still, the Game was getting to be more complicated than she had anticipated for an RPG. She had simply expected Stats, Skills, Quests and Levels. Instead, she was being bombarded with many different systems from Classes to Social Progression to Conditions. There were even two ways to gain Attributes, and she hadn't even laid her hands on a single weapon yet. The equipment system may even be more complex than a simple 'Wear this, get that Stat'! If she were a betting girl (and she was indeed starting to be), she would be willing to wager that this was just the tip of the iceberg.

She wondered why there was even a Game system at all if it was going to try to emulate real-life as much as possible.

Wait, scratch that. She wondered why there was a Game, period.

Well, there was nothing she could do about that train of thought at the moment, so she decided to just start walking around the bar to see if there was anything of interest. There were a few that grabbed her attention.

"Observe."

 **Photograph  
Description: A picture taken using a camera, often cited to be the physical representation of a memory.  
Durability: 65/100**

"Observe."

 **Model Vehicle  
Description: A miniature recreation of a life-sized vehicle. Does not actually work. Batteries not included even if it did.  
Durability: 89/100**

"Observe."

 **Poster  
Description: A picture depicting an event or object of interest, often used as a promotional tool.  
Durability: 74/100**

 **Through continued use, your Observe Skill has levelled up by 1!**

Wanting to see if the level increment added anything new, she Observed the three objects again.

"Observe."

"Observe."

"Observe."

There were no differences at all. Seeing as there was no change in information even with her improved Skill, Ruby concluded that Observe needed to reach a certain threshold before it would reveal any more details on the target.

 **Astute thinking has added to your understanding of the Game, increasing your INT by 1.**

The confirming of such facts was certainly a useful tool, though Ruby knew that she could not rely on it for too long. As her INT increased, the amount of correct information she had to learn to gain another point too had to increase, so her theorizing would not always be verified on the spot. Overdependence on it could lead to dismissing correct conjectures and formulas just because there was no affirmation from the Game.

As she strolled around the bar, she came across one last very, very important thing.

"Observe."

 **Drifter's Board  
Description: A panel of wood that people post their requests onto. Make sure to check here for things to do when you're... board.  
Durability: 984/1000**

Wilfully ignoring the really, _really_ , bad pun, Ruby tried to contain her excitement. This was essentially a Quest Board, which translated to EXP, Lien and all that other stuff! She had a way to gain Levels reliably now!

"Order up!"

Resolving to return immediately after her meal, Ruby bounced back excitedly to where Aru was waiting, holding a plate with a delicious-looking piece of meat covered with even more delicious-looking chopped strawberries.

"Take a bite and tell me what you think." The older man grinned, setting the dish down on a nearby table and handing Ruby a fork and a knife.

She didn't need any more prompting than that. The girl quickly cut and plopped a piece of meat and a bit of strawberry into her mouth.

It was then that Ruby Rose savoured her first taste of heaven.

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

 **You have regained some energy! You are no longer Tired.**

 **Your Condition is now Normal.**

It seemed that some rest and a good meal had restored her stamina somewhat, which was great! Aru had even generously given her second helping, so a perfectly satisfied, if much heavier, Ruby Rose leaned back against her seat patting her stomach happily.

"That was the greatest meal I've ever had." Ruby declared, and meant it. She had enjoyed it so much she had even forgotten to use Discern Taste on it.

Now what was she supposed to do again...? Oh yeah, the Drifter's Board!

"Aru, what's the board for?" She asked the man, who had returned to his spot behind the bar counter.

"Board? Oh, you mean the Drifter's Board? That's a long-standing tradition originating from before the Great War." Aru explained while wiping a glass clean. "Back then, we didn't have Hunters yet or any of the training academies like Signal or Beacon. Those that could use Aura were called Drifters, and they used to wander across the continents from town to town before settling down in one. Towns that didn't have any resident Drifters used to set up a board for when they needed to get things done that they couldn't handle on their own."

Ruby's eyes gleamed. That sounded so cool! She would've totally been one of those if she were born back then.

He set the clean glass down and started on another one before continuing his story. "See, the first thing most Drifters used to do when they entered a new town was to head straight to the bar for a stiff drink. It didn't take long before people realized that and started frequenting the bars more often in hopes of catching a Drifter." He chuckled. "Then some bloke had the idea of putting up a request board at the bar for the Drifters to see and take jobs from. Saved everyone the trouble of wasting their time at the bar. Thus started the tradition."

Another glass. "Most old-fashioned bars like this one have a board. 'Course, nowadays it's more for show than anything. Folks still put in local requests from time to time, but they're mostly just errands and odd-jobs and the like. The real big stuff gets sent to the Hunters Association, and they send the Huntsmen and Huntresses to take care of it."

 **Learning about a piece of Remnant's history has increased your INT by 1.**

"Thanks for the lesson, Aru." Ruby said gratefully. "So if I decide to complete any of those requests..."

"You come straight to me." Aru nodded. "Normally Sal's the one in charge of it, but seeing as he's not here, I'm his replacement. I'll note what requests you take on so there's no double booking involved. Complete one and I'll pass you the reward and claim it back from the client after. If your requests include meeting with the client, you claim it directly from them upon completion, but you'll need to notify me beforehand so I can take it down from the board."

"Roger that." She said. "Thanks for the awesome meal, by the way."

"Sure thing, little lady. Next time you'll be a paying customer, I hope." Aru joked.

"Should be, unless Lilka and Leita get into more trouble." Ruby said with a quick grin before walking towards the Drifter's Board.

'Hmm...' Ruby mused inwardly. 'Let's see what kinds of Quests they have.'

Focusing on one of the notices on the board caused a quest notification to appear.

 **Drifter's Quest: Rats, Rats, and more Rats!**

 **Description: There seems to be a colony of rats in my basement! Can someone please help me get rid of them? Report to the client for more details.**

 **Reward: 150 EXP, 1,500 Lien, Increased Reputation with Patch Island**

 **Client: A Scaredy-Cat**

'Of course it's going to be rats in a basement.' Ruby thought, rolling her eyes. What other clichéd early game RPG Quest would there be? Ruby idly wondered why the client didn't just call some pest exterminators.

After scanning through the details of the Quest, Ruby decided to physically check the notice, seeing as the there was no way a Client would use list themselves as 'A Scaredy-Cat'.

Sure enough, the client's name was Mint. No mention of Scaredy-Cat anywhere. Everything else was the same though. Not for the first time, Ruby wondered if the Game was going out of its way to be amusing.

Putting the decision to take the Quest on hold, Ruby checked out the other two notices on the Board.

 **Drifter's Quest: Evergreen Herbs**

 **Description: I need some fresh plants that can only be gathered from the Evergreen Woods. The risk is high, but so is the reward. Report to the client for more details.**

 **Reward: 300 EXP, 3,000 Lien, Increased Reputation with Patch Island**

 **Client: A Lazy Researcher**

Ruby noted that the researcher's actual name was Milo.

 **Drifter's Quest: Humble Pie**

 **Description: I'm opening a bakery soon and I need someone to taste-test and run back and forth to the store for a few hours. Report to the client for more details.**

 **Reward: 100 EXP, 1,000 Lien, Increased Reputation with Patch Island**

 **Client: A Wannabe Baker**

Whose name was clearly Basil and not just 'Wannabe Baker.' Though that last one could actually pass as a name, if a rather unfortunate one. 'Wannabe Baker the Half-Baked Huntsman' would probably have the Grimm in stitches after hearing his name.

Jokes aside, the rewards were really enticing to Ruby, especially since she was really, really broke. But which one should she take?

'Rats, Rats and more Rats' clearly involved some kind of combat, which judging from the comparatively low EXP reward, shouldn't be too difficult. She hadn't experienced real combat yet since becoming the Gamer (besides running away from that Level 30 Beowolf which totally didn't count), so it would probably be a good idea to give it a try. She'd need to get a proper weapon first before doing so, though.

The second Quest, 'Evergreen Herbs', was definitely out for now. She had no desire to go back into the Evergreen Woods after her earlier experience. Not until she was at least Level 20 anyway. That place was a veritable death trap.

The third job was a much different sort of quest. It paid relatively well for the risk involved- which was to say, none. Or maybe the risk was food poisoning. Still, it seemed to be menial work, something she could easily do. In fact, she could probably build some of her Attributes doing so.

It was an easy decision, really. Seeing as she was planning to mindlessly run in circles and carry heavy things until she was knackered out at some point anyway, Ruby figured she might as well get paid for it. She grabbed the notice off the board and brought it to Aru.

"I'll be taking this one." She told him. He took a quick glance at it.

"Ah, Basil's job eh? Alright, I'll make a note of it. I've got another copy, so you can keep that one." Aru said, marking it down a register of sorts. "Good luck on your first job, little lady."

"Thanks. Say goodbye to the girls for me."

And so our Gamer strolled out of The Wild West with the notice in hand, eager to make some money on her first Drifter's Quest.

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

 _A/N: And done! Again, how many references can you spot?_

 _I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. Seeing as again, there hasn't been any real historic background detailed in canon, I've decided to invent my own. It also serves as a way to introduce Drifter's Quests to Ruby, which allows her to gain EXP without having to run into Grimm or talk to random people for the off-chance of getting quests. I frankly can't be bothered to imagine up ten conversations for Ruby to discover one measly quest of non-import, so I decided to use this system instead._

 _Influence was initially supposed to be measurable... but then I realized that that would involve way too much work seeing as I'm creating pre-Beacon characters left and right. She'd have too many people to keep track of (and so would I), so I decided against it and made it hidden instead. This way Ruby can't just look at a list and know who likes her or doesn't. Quite frankly, I'd like to cut down on the OCs as much as possible, but until we get to Beacon, there's no real way to avoid it besides making her hang with Yang all the time, which she wouldn't do without reason. Especially since Yang has a summer job at the moment._

 _Reputation and Renown should be really fun mechanics to play with and should mark Ruby's growth and progress in Remnant fairly well._

 _The reason why the entire Rescue Leita questline gives so much EXP compared to everything else is because it was meant to be undertaken by a much higher level character. Ruby stumbled across it by accident and accepted it without realizing the repercussions and the difficulty. It was only thanks to Leita's LUK stat affecting circumstances that Ruby managed to complete it successfully._

 _If there is anything else in the story that needs clarification or rankles you, drop me a review (or a PM if you're not comfortable with reviewing) and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can so I can share my thought process and reasoning behind my decisions with you._

' _Till next time._

Edit: Oh wow, there were some awful, awful sentences in this chapter. I actually cringed when I re-read the chapter over again, having missed them during the first edit. If there are any more terrible, terribad sentences, please PM me about it so I can fix it ASAP. I'm really not feeling confident about the quality of this chapter. Wasn't on top of my game when I penned it down.


	5. Chapter 5: Of Croissants and Baguettes

**Chapter 5: Of Croissants and Baguettes**

 _A/N: Hm. I'll be trying to streamline a couple of things to balance out the numbers. I'll probably rework a few skill details already mentioned in the previous chapters to get a better number at some point. Now onto the show._

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

Ruby hesitantly on the door of the address on the notice and waited.

After twenty long seconds, she knocked again, calling out this time. "...Hello? Is anyone there?"

There was still no answer, even after a minute. Getting annoyed, Ruby raised both arms towards the door.

Taking a long, deep breath, she started bashing the door repeatedly, one fist after another. "Open up alreadyyyyyyyy!"

After what felt like minutes to Ruby (but was barely even half in actuality), the door finally opened, revealing a rather stocky, bespectacled youth with an annoyed look on his face.

"Can I help you?" He asked pointedly. "I'm in the middle of something, so please be quick."

"Um..." Ruby hesitated. "Are you Basil?"

"Who's asking?"

"Ruby Rose. I accepted your request from the Drifter's Board." She showed him the notice.

"Then yes, I am he." Basil nodded, a curious look overriding his earlier irritation. "Aren't you a little young to be taking Board Jobs, though?"

"I'm not young." Ruby corrected him, crossing her arms. "I'm thirteen."

"Right. The very peak of maturity." He gave an amused smile. "Well, since you're here, come on in. Oh, and try not to clobber the door to death next time. The doorbell's there for a reason."

Sure enough, now that it was pointed out, Ruby noticed that there was indeed a doorbell by the door.

"...Riiiiiiight." Ruby mumbled as she entered the building feeling rather sheepish.

The scent of baking bread immediately overwhelmed her as she followed Basil into the kitchen where he hastily looked into an oven. "We'll cut to the chase. Basically, I need you to taste a batch and give me your honest opinion on them. Feel free to be as direct as you want. If it's bad, just say so. Flattery won't sell these buns."

"Okay." Ruby said, to which he gave an approving nod in return.

"Meanwhile, I'll get a second batch started. While waiting for the dough to rise, we'll have a brainstorming session, where we come up with ideas for more stuff. When we're done with that, I'll write you a list of ingredients to get from the general store based on what we come up with. While you're out getting those, I'll pop the second batch in the oven and prep the dough for the new stuff. When you get back with the ingredients, it's taste-testing time and the whole thing repeats. Capiche?"

"Yep!" Ruby could see the efficiency in the system. There would always be something baking, resting or being prepared. When Basil and Ruby both had free time, it would be spent on thinking up new ideas.

"Brainstorming sessions after the first one should be shorter. Of course, this means you should only take up to forty-five minutes at maximum per trip to the store, or the schedule will be thrown off. The sooner you get back from the trips, the better."

"Roger that, Cap'n."

"Let's get started, then. Here, try this." Basil grabbed a croissant and held it up in front of her.

Ruby Observed the pastry before taking it from him. Her eyes gleamed at its description.

 **Pastry  
** **Description: Something flaked; something baked. Restores a varied amount of HP when consumed.**

This... this could definitely be abused.

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

In the span of six hours of working with Basil, Ruby had reaped a great many benefits. As it was practically her job to eat something, learn about bread and think up ideas, run to the store and buy a few things which were actually really heavy, run back, eat more things _which recovered HP_ and repeat, Ruby had managed to develop multiple facets of her abilities at once.

Her Discern Taste had developed to the point where she could pinpoint the method of cooking and all base ingredients. It was now a solid Level 9, and Basil had been steadily impressed at her growing ability to identify component after component.

Learning more about bread, trivial as it may be, had also increased her INT by two points. Basil had been very thorough and comprehensive in educating her about the Glorious Ways and Trays of Baking. Thinking up good ideas for bread concepts, however, had only increased her WIS by one. She supposed that their growth rates were already slowing down, seeing as she had spent a good hour or two in this fashion with little results.

It was running to the store and back that had yielded absolutely fantastic results. Basil had no use for the rest of the batch beyond one or two tastes of them, so when Ruby asked whether she could have some for the trip, he had given her all but a few that he kept for future comparisons.

The silver-eyed girl had absolutely no qualms about grabbing the whole lot and dumping it into her Inventory. Seeing as it was a Game mechanic, the aspiring baker had simply ignored the sudden disappearance of the bread, seemingly uncaring about how Ruby had managed to vanish three trays of pastries all at once.

Ruby wasn't quite sure how the Inventory worked, exactly, but she was getting the hang of it. She didn't need to open the menu to pull out an item from what seemed to her own personal dimensional pocket, nor did she need to do so to dump things in. A simple Soft Command had allowed her to do both with ease. There also seemed to be a limit to how much she could carry in such a fashion. It seemed to be dictated in weight, not size, and as far as Ruby could tell, it was her STR multiplied by 2 kg per point. Which, of course, meant that she could completely fill her Inventory with the light pastries without any issues whatsoever.

Unfortunately, the weight in her Inventory did not count towards her STR growth. To actually gain STR, Ruby needed to be carrying something with her actual body, which she actually did on the way back from those shopping runs. Basil's requested ingredients were actually pretty heavy, earning her a total of three points in STR over six trips, each one-way trip taking at least ten minutes. It was the equivalent to an hour of strength training.

However, her biggest achievement was most definitely the development (read, 'abuse') of the Sprint Skill. Seeing as she had access to a huge source of restorative items that constantly replenished itself every trip back, Ruby had managed to sustain her Sprint Skill almost indefinitely during the travel back and forth. It was this particular idea that had netted her a second point in WIS.

By the end of the job, she had gained a whole eight levels in Sprint, bringing it up to Level 12. This, subsequently, had increased her AGI by four points. Sprint had also become easier to sustain, its cost decreasing by 1 AP per minute with every level up. At the moment, the skill read:

 **Sprint (Active) – Level: 12**

 **Description: Sometimes just running isn't enough. Increases your Movement Speed by 100% while Active.**

 **Cost: 108 AP/min. Can use HP to cast.**

She had even managed to get two points of VIT from the prolonged exercise. Best of all, she didn't even hit the Tired state because of the constant resting in between runs.

Hitting both the VIT and STR threshold had allowed her to equip the Novice Class, giving her a bonus 1% EXP Gain, which she assumed would be higher at the later levels. She managed to unlock it about half an hour before Basil had deemed himself ready for the task and thanked Ruby for her help.

"You know, I had my doubts about you at first, but you definitely managed to get the job done, and without any schedule pushbacks too." He had said with a tired but satisfied smile. "When I open up for business, feel free to drop by. I'll be sure to give you a discount."

 **Drifter's Quest Complete: Humble Pie**

 **Rewards: 100 EXP, 1,000 Lien, Increased Reputation with Patch Island**

 **Bonus: Punctuality counts. Take less than 45 minutes per shopping trip. +50 EXP, Increased Influence with Basil**

All in all, it had been an absolutely amazing day for Ruby. Although it started off rather shaky and she had very nearly died at one point, she had gone from Level 2 to Level 7 all in the span of a single day, along with gaining a whole bunch of Attributes and Skills. As she checked her Status, she was confident that she was probably the strongest Level 7 around. Maybe.

'Status.'

 **Ruby Rose  
** **Class: Novice  
** **Title: The Gamer  
** **Level: 7  
** **EXP: 232/700**

 **HP: 280/280  
** **HPR: 4.8/min**

 **STR: 10  
** **AGI: 18  
** **VIT: 10  
** **DEX: 11  
** **INT: 14  
** **WIS: 17  
** **LUK: 13**

 **Points: 30**

 **Condition: Normal  
** **Credits: 1,005 Lien**

Her stats were relatively high and she had yet to spend a single free point on anything, though she was sorely tempted to do so. She had to be patient though. The longer she held off pumping her stats, the higher the amount of Attributes she would gain from natural means. It would be extremely beneficial for her in the long run to save them.

To top it all off, as the perfect ending to a perfect day, she had even managed to retain ten pieces from the last batch of baked goods for future use.

It was most definitely a good day to be Ruby Rose, and it showed as she skipped home happily, humming a merry tune.

 **Through continued practice, your Singing Skill has levelled up by 1.**

Oh, and there was that too!

Yep, it was most definitely a good day to be Ruby Rose.

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

 **You have slept for 7 hours! Your HP and AP are fully recovered!**

 **Your Condition is now Refreshed! Your efficiency is increased by 25%**

When Ruby woke up to the above message the very next day, she had been filled with excitement. Going to bed while in a Normal condition granted her the Refreshed condition, which was downright amazing. As with being Tired, being Refreshed affected her Attributes as well, only in a positive way. Her mind and body were feeling absolutely fantastic and at its sharpest.

"Note to self." Ruby thought out loud. "Make long-term plans and decisions when Refreshed."

However, it was most definitely a temporary buff. There was a timer next to her HP Bar that read:

 **Refreshed! – 02:58:47**

It was ticking down, meaning she had approximately three hours to take advantage of the buff and all its benefits.

Which was why she had quickly rushed through her morning routine in an effort to get to The Wild West as quickly as possible. After all, seeing as Leita and Lilka were grounded, they would most assuredly be rather bored and at home.

She was sure Leita and Lilka would enjoy her company, knowing how mind-numbing it was to be grounded herself. That she now had 1,005 Lien, along with the fact that Leita had some insane LUK and a penchant for Heads or Tails had absolutely nothing to do with it. Not at all.

...Okay fine, so _maybe_ it had everything to do with it. Ruby felt a smidgen of guilt for making use of Leita in such a fashion, but argued that the other girl enjoyed playing the simple game anyway and would end up making some easy money for herself. It was a win-win situation for everyone, so why not?

Her much higher AGI now allowed her to make it to Pumpotatokin Village from her house in only twenty minutes, which was a good fifteen minute improvement from what it would have been yesterday. It was amazing how much difference a day of gaining Attributes made.

Unfortunately for the Gamer, it was only half-past eight when she arrived at her destination. The Wild West had yet to open for business.

'Opens from 10 AM to 3 AM.' She read the sign on the door, groaning at her stupidity. Of course a bar and bistro would have no reason to open so early in the early morning. So much for her 'improved' Wisdom and Intelligence.

"What do I do now?" She asked no one in particular. Of course, seeing as the street was empty, there was no answer.

Wait a minute, there was no answer.

Ruby's eyes widened in excitement as she realized that the street was _empty_. And that meant...

It was time for Act Two of Ruby's Theatre!

Hmm, that didn't sound quite right.

Ruby's World Stage? ...Nah, not catchy enough.

Ruby's Acting Adventures!

Yes, that should do. It was short, smooth, rolled off the tongue, and she loved it!

Now the million Lien question was... what should the theme be this time?

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

Operative Rose crouched behind her cover. The completion of this mission was absolutely critical. The fate of all humans and faunuses around the world hung in the balance.

It was a simple enough job on paper. Go in, retrieve the package, wire the info back to Control, destroy the evidence, and if all went well, get out alive.

That last bit was optional, but preferred.

Her team was comprised of two of her most trusted men. Operative Bladder had been the one to detect the info _leak_ (Ruby snickered) in the first place and had been her partner for the last six years. The other member of her team was Operative Hippo, who had gone underwater for thirteen years now.

...Or was it gone underground? She may have to rename him to Operative Mole if that was the case.

But whatever it was, he was Operative Hippo for now. It sounded cooler than Operative Mole anyway.

Anyway, yes. Top secret important mission!

"Bladder, Hippo, are you two ready?" She asked quietly. There was no reply, of course. They were very quiet people, much like many top secret operatives tended to be. They simply nodded affirmatively.

"Alright. Let's run through the plan one last time." Operative Rose said, drawing up a simple diagram on a large digital blueprint using a stylus. Or drawing in the sand with a stick. Same thing, really.

"We," She drew an circle on the blueprint, "are here. We need to get to the Link Drive over there." She drew an 'X'.

She then drew a line connecting the two symbols. "The direct path is meticulously guarded, so we have to take the roundabout path. Whatever you do, don't get caught until _after_ we've transmitted the files to HQ. If they raise the alarm before we get to the Link Drive, the mission's shot. Understood?"

As per usual, the two operatives nodded without a word. "We'll need someone to hack into the system and disable the security mainframe. Hippo, you're the IT expert. We'll be counting on you. Bladder, with me."

 **Through cont-**

Her team nodded. "Alright, we'll be commencing the operation at 0845 hours. Sync timers and prepare yourselves."

There were two minutes left before the start of the op. Noticing that her long-time partner had a rather melancholic look on his face, Rose couldn't help but ask. "What's wrong?"

Operative Bladder was worried about the mortality rate of the mission, or so he told her. Operative Hippo had snorted at that and mentioned that all three of them had made it through missions that were much more dangerous, a fact that Rose agreed with.

"You shouldn't worry too much. Besides, on the off-chance that the worst happens, I'm sure little Gall will grow up just fine. He's got your genes, after all." And your unfortunate surname, Rose refrained from adding.

The worried operative said nothing in response, opting instead to check his gear to make sure everything was in order.

The last minute before the Op felt like an hour, as waiting for something always did.

Then the time hit 0845 hours. "Commencing operation." Ruby muttered. "Good luck, everyone."

The two ground operatives immediately skulked out from behind their cover into a huge amphitheatre with no end in sight. Clinging to the shadows, our heroes managed to sneak by two patrols before entering a stairwell.

 **You have perf-**

They climbed up the boxe- _stairs_ and up onto the balcony of the amphitheatre. Making a few hand signs, she signalled for Bladder to head left while she leapt down and landed silently onto the middle floor. She continued trekking quietly down the corridor, alert for any signs of life, before arriving at her destination. The main security centre. If she could connect the primary mainframe to her Scroll, Hippo should be able to override their electronic security and video feeds.

"Hippo, crack the door. Coordinates X:563, Y:245, Z:2. Security mainframe." Operative Rose radioed. "Plan Alpha."

The hacker responded with an affirmative. A few seconds later the door opened. Operative Rose snuck into the room and dispatched the two guards watching the monitor feed with two tranquilizer syringes. Moving quickly, she hooked her Scroll with a Neuron-Fibre Cable before plugging it into the system mainframe. Her Scroll now read "Now Charging..."

"Hippo, your turn. Bladder, get into position to retrieve scan and recognition."

Operative Hippo radioed that he now had full access, so Operative Rose swiftly disconnected her Scroll, left the room and manoeuvred through a narrow corridor, ending up yet again in front of another lock door.

"Bladder, awaiting your end." She told him, staying in the shadows.

Two minutes later, her Scroll had the specifics for visually duplicating a false eye to bypass the Retina Scan along with a sample of the head honcho's voice.

The door opened, and Operative Rose entered a dark room. After a brief scan of her surroundings, she managed to locate the Link Drive and quickly synced her Scroll with it.

"Hippo, bypass security."

Three seconds later, the Scroll lit up, indicating that the hacker had cracked the passwords successfully. With a sigh of relief, Rose quickly transmitted the entire file directory to Control, which looked to take a few minutes.

"Bladder, time to get out. Hippo, start looping the feeds. Looks like we'll be leaving this place alive, boys."

 **Through continued practice, your Acting Skill has levelled up by 1!**

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

'Now what?' A thoroughly normal, non-operative Ruby Rose thought, bored out of her mind.

While it was fun at first, this episode of Acting ended on a rather boring note. Acting needed Action! That was why their first three letters were the same!

If she were honest, she had been tempted to let the alarm trip during the scenario, but the character she was playing and the team she was leading were supposed to be the best of the best, meaning the op should go off without a hitch. She couldn't even insert a traitor, seeing as Bladder and Hippo weren't the type!

Resolving to make sure there would be more of the aforementioned action next time, Ruby decided to just use the rest of her time to flip around pointlessly. It was only five minutes later that she remembered that there was a different notification in the midst of Episode 2 that was not an Acting level up, so she decided to check it out.

'Log.'

Sure enough, there was something of interest.

 **2\. You have performed a Special Action! By skulking around sneakily, you have unlocked a new Skill!**

 **Stealth (Passive) – Level: 1**

 **Description: Walking around like a ninja has its benefits. This is considered a Passive Skill and does not need to be activated to use. Higher levels allow for quieter movement, better camouflage and utilization of shadows.**

This could definitely be useful in the future, but she wasn't in the mood to train it right now. She closed the screen and promptly went back to flipping around pointlessly.

Around her Oum-knows-how-many-eth flip, her Scroll began blasting out her ringtone.

She answered it after seeing who it was. "What's up, Yang?"

" _Oh, you're safe!_ " Came her sister's relieved voice. " _What in the world possessed you to leave the house so early without leaving a note? You really had me worried for a while, Sis. I was this close to calling Dad."_

Oops. "Uh, sorry Yang. I wasn't really thinking."

" _Damn straight you weren't thinking. So where are you, anyways?"_

"Pumpotatokin."

" _Any particular reason you're there?"_

"I wanted to do a few things, but then I realized I got here too early. The bar's not even open yet."

" _Bar?! Ruby, I was just joking about the gambling yesterday, but you'd better not be drinking too!"_

Ruby rebellious streak flared indignantly. "Like you're one to talk. You drink alcohol all the time!"

" _...Okay, maybe. But it's a bad habit, Rubes. Especially if you need a drink so early in the morning. That's alcoholism right there."_

Ruby didn't quite know what alcoholism meant, but she could guess.

"Well, I'm not here to drink. In fact, I haven't drank a single drop in my life!" She declared proudly.

" _That you know of, anyways."_

"What's that supposed to mean?"

" _Uh, nothing, Sis! I most certainly did not spike the punch we had at your twelfth birthday party. Not at all."_ Yang laughed nervously.

Huh. That was new. Now that she thought about it, the punch had tasted a little funny. Her friends had acted a little weird too. Hindsight was 20/20, she guessed.

"I don't think I even want to know." Ruby sighed at her sister's antics. "Anyway, I'm just here to talk to a few friends of mine, and maybe take a request."

There were strange noises coming from her Scroll, which Ruby took to be connection problems before Yang finally said something. _"Taking requests?! Ruby, you're way too young for that kind of stuff!"_

"No, I'm not!"

" _Yes, you are! Heck, even I'm too young for that kind of stuff!"_

"What? You do it all the time!"

" _Who told you that? I'll have you know I'm as pure as the driven snow."_

"Psshh, yeah right! If you're as pure as the driven snow, I'm completely see-through."

" _...You're not wearing a see-through right now, are you?"_

Ruby was confused. "Huh? What are you talking about? What's a see-through?"

" _You know, those clear lingerie and stuff."_

Ruby's face was as red as her namesake. "W-What?! Why would you even wear something like that?! It's completely redundant!" She sputtered.

" _Cuz it's a turn on for some people?"_

"Huh? What's a turn on?"

" _When you get... excited, Sis."_

"Huh. So I get turned on when I'm excited? So when am I turned off?"

" _Usually when something happens that completely kills the mood."_

"Oh, then I'm very turned off right now." Ruby said. "I'm so bored."

" _Uh... that's not quite how it works, Sis. But still, that's proof that you're way too young to be selling your services, Rubes!"_

"I am not! I helped Basil yesterday just fine. I got 1,000 Lien for it too! He thought that I was a little too young, but after the whole thing he said that I did a good job!"

" _Oh, he did, did he? What else did this Basil say?"_ Yang asked in an acidic tone.

"That he'd give me a discount when he opened up. Which is awesome, because he had some really good buns!"

" _I'm sure his buns were fantastic."_

"Yeah, they were kinda soft and springy, and they tasted absolutely delicious!"

" _You tasted them?"_ Yang asked, seemingly horrified.

"Of course, Yang. It was part of the job description."

" _Was it now?"_ The blonde's tone was icy. There was a large explosion in the background. _"What else did he make you do?"_

"Uh, Yang? Is everything alright?"

" _Just peachy. Go on."_

"Well, we came up with some new ideas for him to try, then he drew up a list of stuff for me to get, which I did. When I got back, I tried the new ones and then we came up with ideas again. I think we did the whole process five times."

" _Five times?!"_

"Or six. Things got kinda hazy after the third run, so I'm not too sure." Ruby said over Yang's strangled noises. "I really liked his baguette though."

" _Is that what he called it? His baguette?"_ There was another explosion.

"Yeah. The smaller one, which I also like, is the croissant."

" _So his croissant turns into a baguette?"_ Yang said dryly.

"Huh? No, Yang. They're very different. The baguette is kinda like a long bread, so it's kinda crusty and hard, but really soft and fluffy on the inside. The croissant is a crescent-shaped flaky butter pastry. The dough is layered with butter, then you roll it and fold it a few times. Croissants are also baked for like, five minutes longer than baguettes, but at a lower temperature, and you gotta adjust it according to how it looks in the oven."

" _...What on Remnant are you talking about?"_

"I'm talking about how to bake croissants, Yang. Duh!"

" _Wait, run by me what this Basil needed you for again?"_

"I just explained it to you, Sis! I'm helping him with his bakery. He's planning on opening it in two weeks!" Ruby explained, rather frustratedly.

There was silence on the other line for a while, before Yang finally responded. _"So you're not having sex?"_

"H-huh?!" Ruby spluttered, her face burning. "NO! Why in Monty's name would you ask that?!"

" _...No particular reason. I'll talk to you later tonight, Sis. Please, for Oum's sake, forget this conversation ever happened. And please, please, please, do not use the phrase 'turned on', ever. It doesn't mean what you think it means."_ Yang pleaded.

"Um... okay?" Ruby asked, thoroughly weirded out by Yang's behaviour.

" _Good. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll go get a brush and scrub my brain now. It's spent way too much time in the gutter."_

"Uh... alright then. Take care, Yang." Ruby said in an uncertain tone.

" _You too, Rubes. Remember, no gambling, drinking or sex!"_

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaang!" The silver-eyed girl protested, but the call had already ended.

That was hands down one of the strangest calls Ruby had ever had in her life, second only to the time where a drunk Yang had called her and proceeded to sing some strange song about being on fire. She suspected that there must've been a huge miscommunication somewhere during this particular conversation, but didn't quite know what it was.

Shrugging nonchalantly, Ruby went back to flipping pointlessly. It wasn't like thinking about it would get her anywhere.

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

Much to her fortune, Aru had noticed her jumping around outside the bar at around nine-thirty, so he had let her in early.

"Any reason you're here so early, little lady?" He asked.

"Well, I kinda want to win back my money from Leita, have some more Strawberry Steak for lunch and then take another request."

Aru laughed. "I can't say there's anything wrong with either of those, but you're a paying customer today."

"Of course. How much is the steak, anyways?" Ruby asked, deciding to keep some money in check before she wound up without enough money for lunch again.

"350 Lien, but for you I'll knock it off to 300." Aru chuckled good-naturedly.

That meant that she could afford two or three of 'em, which would be awesome! Okay, technically, she didn't _need_ to eat so much per se, but Ruby had always been a bit gluttonous when it came to strawberries.

"What about extra strawberries?" Ruby asked hopefully.

"I'll toss a bowl of 'em in for an extra 100 Lien." Aru told her.

"Deal!" Ruby chirped excitedly. "But later, of course. I'm not that hungry yet."

"Sure thing, little lady. Leita and Lilka are in their room upstairs. Leita should already be awake, she's normally up earlier than I am. Though I can't say the same for Lilka." The older man told her wryly. "Third room to the right. You can't miss it; they've got a plaque on the door with their name on it."

"Thanks, Aru." Ruby said with a grateful smile. "I'll see you later!"

"Have fun now."

She bounded up the stairs, eager to make use of her Refreshed status properly now. She should be able to at least double her LUK today, if her estimations were correct. Following Aru's directions, she ended up in front of a door with a piece of paper attached to it. Leita's name was written in a simple, plain cursive writing, while Lilka's was very... creative. It had been drawn in with multiple colours and shades, and what Ruby believed was supposed to be a unicorn took the place of the dot above the 'i'.

'Yep. You can't miss it, alright.' Ruby thought dryly as she knocked on the door.

Almost immediately, the door opened, revealing a casually-dressed Leita.

"That was quick."

The black-haired girl nodded. "I saw you outside. Told Aru to let you in. Come on in."

"Thanks. I was getting really bored waiting for the bar to open." Ruby said appreciatively as she entered the room. It was rather plain with the exception of a few dolls and decorations strewn about. She noted that Lilka was still asleep on the bed in her pyjamas.

"Nice room."

"Thank you. Jumping off the balcony opposite us was quite cool." Leita said.

"Huh? But I didn't..." Ruby started before she froze and turned to Leita mechanically. She _had_ jumped off the balcony opposite from the bar. Once.

During Episode 2 of Ruby's Acting Adventures.

Oh Oum. There went her last shred of dignity.

"You... saw that?" Her voice was strained. "You didn't hear anything, did you?"

Leita shook her head. "Too far away."

Oh thank Oum. "I was just practicing my acrobatics, gotta stay in shape! Anyway, I came to win back some money from you." The silver-eyed girl quickly changed the topic and took out a coin, flipping it expertly. "Up for a few rounds of Heads or Tails?"

Leita's eyes glinted. "Same rules?"

"Aye."

"Bring it." The dark-haired girl grinned uncharacteristically, much like a predator after its prey.

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

 _A/N: Just a simple 'Ruby exploits the system' chapter, along with some fun. As usual, how many references can you spot?_

 _Okay, things are moving a little bit too slowly here. I had originally intended to time skip a little bit, but I think showcasing Ruby being willing to game the system is rather important. The time skip should happen in the next chapter for sure._

 _Before anyone says that Ruby is getting a bit OP, that's the point. Her OP-ness stems from the ability to recognize the best ways to gain stats and stuff like that. That's the entire purpose of the Gamer ability. Complete autonomy and understanding the best way to become stronger._

 _That being said, she is far from being broken. She needs to discover how these things work and come up with ways to exploit the system. Any combinations that occur are well within the system. Class mix and matching? She needs to unlock said classes first, then figure out any potential synergy, then meet the requirements, then level them up, and then only can she meet her full potential. It's a long, painstaking process, because newsflash, there isn't a walkthrough or FAQ she can go to. Not to mention she needs to do all that when some other people already have really strong class combos naturally equipped._

 _It's the same with abilities. She discovers them. She practices them. She actually has to grind more than other people do to achieve complete mastery. Sure, you can say she picks up dancing really, really well. But she's limited to her current Skill level, which grows at their own pace, becoming longer and longer as time goes on. Take the Sprint Skill, for example. With my system, it takes 227 days of non-stop Sprinting to reach MAX level, assuming normal condition. That's 227 days of straight running (or keeping the skill active). Most professional sprinters don't even sprint at max speed for an hour a day, if even half of that at all. They won't come anywhere close to 227 days of Sprinting in their lifetime._

 _Ruby, however, will have to if she intends to max out Sprinting. Furthermore, if she's not careful, she can pass out from it. It's a double-edged sword, really. The same thing goes for dancing, singing, acrobatics and the like, though some may take longer and others shorter. She learns things easy enough. To achieve mastery, she has to grind much, much more than the normal person with a natural talent for such things, which I treat as an growth multiplier._

 _So, upsides. Autonomy, unlimited potential, system exploitation and accurate growth measurements. Downsides, grinding, having to discover everything, and more grinding. Hope I've clarified why Ruby's doing so well at the moment. She exploited the system in this chapter and will continue to do so whenever she has the opportunity to._

 _Also, double entendres ahoy._

 _'Till next time._


	6. Chapter 6: Pest Control Extraordinaire!

**Chapter 6: Ruby Rose, Pest Control Extraordinaire!**

 _A/N: I've been putting writing off for months. But I owe you guys a chapter, so here I go. With how long I took, you'd probably need to re-read the entire story._

 _Huge changes for me. I'm now studying in a land far, far away, so acclimatizing to the new environment took a while. Let's just hope I haven't lost the essence of this story. I know I've certainly forgotten the system and the numbers behind it, so I'll need to run a refresher course. Anyway, enough about me. On to the story._

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

"Best. Meal. _Ever_." Mewled one blissfully satisfied Ruby in the midst of a cat-like stretch.

It was simple, really. To make a wild Ruby Rose deliriously happy, feed it strawberries. Or cookies. Either of 'em worked. Or both! Strawberry cookies!

"Aru! Do you make strawberry cookies?" The excitable girl immediately asked, eyes wide with hope.

The middle-aged bartender chuckled, shaking his head. "I run a bar, not a bakery. You could check with Basil, though."

Our Gamer nodded enthusiastically, her eyes filled with a gluttonous gleam. "So it's 500 Lien for this meal, right?"

"A house special and two bowls of strawberries, so that's correct, little lady."

"Here you go." Ruby happily forked the money over. Their sacrifice was well worth it, just like all the other credits that she had lost to Leita over the last two hours of gambling.

Aru thanked her and quickly returned to the bar to serve another customer. Wanting to double-check her balance, Ruby brought up the status screen.

'Status.'

 **Ruby Rose  
** **Class: Novice 1 (152/600)  
** **Title: The Gamer  
** **Level: 7  
** **EXP: 232/700**

 **HP: 280/280  
** **HPR: 4.8/min**

 **STR: 10  
** **AGI: 18  
** **VIT: 10  
** **DEX: 11  
** **INT: 16  
** **WIS: 18  
** **LUK: 37**

 **Points: 30  
** **Condition: Normal  
** **Credits: 210 Lien**

All those lost credits had translated to a grand total of twenty-four LUK, two INT and one WIS in just two hours. Granted, she had had the Refresh status to boost the attributes's growth a little, but so many attribute points in such a short time was indeed phenomenal.

Leita had gotten bored of the coin toss after half an hour, so they had broken out a deck of cards and moved onto another game called Cups. When Lilka finally tumbled out of bed, the three of them had played Blackjack till lunch.

It was interesting; how the LUK stat worked. Ruby had logged their wins and losses as to not have to have money change hands every round, and she had discovered that when playing against Leita in a one-to-one situation, her loss rates were proportional to her LUK stat against Leita's. As her LUK increased, her win-rate directly increased as well.

However, once Ruby had reached half of Leita's LUK, gaining points stopped being instant on a win. Ruby theorized that anything that had a 33% chance of winning or above no longer qualified as overwhelming odds, and thus contributed much less to the gain of the attribute.

Playing Blackjack, however, had been vastly different. Seeing as there were elements of skill involved, such as factoring in probability and having a good poker face, she had managed to eke out two points of INT and two levels of Acting.

Reading Leita and Lilka's body language and hitting or standing at the right times had also consequently upped her WIS by 1 and her Observe Skill by 4. She had managed to break even at the end of the session.

Idly, Ruby wondered whether an extremely high levelled Observe Skill would be able to identify a card from the back, seeing as it drew information from an external source.

Scratch idly wondering about it, Ruby was full on interested. Sure, it was 'cheating', but it was _technically_ a skill. _And_ she'd never have to worry about money again! Just imagine all the strawberries and the cookies and _omigoshtheSTRAWBERRYCOOKI-_

Ahem.

Internal composure recovered, Ruby took note of her remaining Lien before closing the Status screen with a sigh. Sure, she was still richer than she was yesterday morning, but compared to earlier this morning, she was positively a pauper.

Well, one had to spend money to make money and all that jazz, or so Ruby told herself. At the very least, it was money well spent. Besides, she could make it back by questing now!

So without further ado, Ruby stood and walked to the Board to snag up a Request that she'd had her eye on since this morning. The Rats in the Basement one.

 **Drifter's Quest: Rats, Rats, and more Rats!**

 **Description: There seems to be a colony of rats in my basement! Can someone please help me get rid of them? Report to the client for more details.**

 **Reward: 150 EXP, 1,500 Lien, Increased Reputation with Patch Island**

 **Client: A Scaredy-Cat**

As she notified Aru of her pick, Ruby casually pondered why the client had yet to call pest control.

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

"Well, y'see, pest control can't really deal with it. These rats are huge. Like… dog huge." Mint was explaining, holding her hands out for size.

Mint, the client, was a petite girl who looked to be in her later teenage years. She strangely resembled a cat of sorts, with rather feline features and a catlike grin.

"An' uh… they _might_ be Grimm."

Well, that was one question answered.

"An' see, I don't really wanna spend so much money on calling in ta Huntsmen." The cat-like girl continued. "It costs like, I dunno, 10,000 Lien or something for a C-Ranked mission like this. So I figured ta put it up on the Drifter's Board to see if anyone could help me out."

Ruby's left eye began to twitch. 'Oh God, she's a cheapskate. A total cheapskate.'

"I've been keeping 'em locked in for the past five days, but they won't seem to go away. I can hear them squeakin' from my living room sometimes."

"…" Ruby was rendered speechless. And thoughtless. Was Mint's WIS stuck at 1 or something?

"Observe."

 **Mint Catalack  
** **Title: Scaredy-Cat  
** **Level: 9**

 **HP: 300/300**

 **STR: 9  
** **AGI: 36  
** **VIT: 9  
** **DEX: 18  
** **INT: 9  
** **WIS: 5  
** **LUK: 9**

Right. Not a very bright girl, then. Crazy fast though.

Ruby sighed, before shaking her head. "You _do_ realize that you've locked the door, right? They can't leave."

"Well, yeah, but Grimm disappear on their own sometimes, don't cha know?"

Okay, so maybe not quite _that_ stupid. Still…

"Grimm will only disappear when there are no negative emotions for them to feed on in the area. They've been feeding on your fear." The silver-eyed girl explained, reciting what her dad had told Yang once.

Mint blinked. "Oh."

"Yes. Oh." Ruby couldn't resist.

"Well, aren't you a smart lil' twelve year old." The feline female broke into a grin, ruffling the younger girl's hair.

"I'm thirteen." Ruby huffed. Seriously, why did everyone think she was twelve? That was _so_ last year.

"Twelve, thirteen, there's hardly any difference. You still don't got ya boobs yet." Mint winked.

Ruby, being Ruby, blushed. "W-Whatever. So where's the basement?"

The older girl lost her grin. "Hold it. I can't send a twelve-year old girl to fight a couple of Grimm. Even if they're small ones."

"Why not?" Ruby asked, puzzled. "And I'm thirteen."

"Why not? You're twelve-"

"Thirteen." Ruby corrected.

"-and just a kid. You'll probably just die."

Ruby ended up giving her the puppy dog-eyed look. It didn't work as intended, so Ruby sighed and said, "Look, I already took the job. If it goes badly in there I'll be sure to run away. I'm a lot faster than I look."

There was a short staring contest of sorts, before the older girl gave in.

"...Fine." Mint said, crossing her arms. "But on one condition. You beat me in a race, I'll let ya give it a shot. You lose, ya go back home. Deal?"

 **Pre-Requisite Quest: Chasing Cats**

 **Description: Out of worry, Mint has decided to ensure you were fast enough to get away if things go wrong. Beat her in a race!**

 **Rewards: 100 EXP, ?, Increased Influence with Mint, Rights to proceed to 'Rats, Rats, and more Rats!'**

 **Do you wish to accept?**

The Gamer girl frowned, running through some quick calculations. Her current AGI was 18, while Mint's was 36. With her Sprint skill, Ruby could potentially double her running speed to the equivalent value of 36 AGI, which would put her on par with Mint.

"What happens if we tie?" Ruby asked.

"If we tie, you win. I managed ta get away, so you'd be able to as well." Mint said. "Course, I doubt you'd even come close."

"Alright then. Deal." And with that statement, Ruby's vision was immediately assaulted by another obnoxious popup.

 **Mini-Game: Racing**

 **Objective: Beat your opponent to the finish line!**

 **Special Rules: Non-Interference. All Skills allowed.**

 **Participants: Ruby Rose, Mint Catalack**

"Okay, then here're the rules." Mint said as she led Ruby outside. Drawing a line on the ground with a stick, she said, "This here's the starting line. I'll toss a coin, the moment it hits the ground, we race to tha' tree over there an' back. As long as we don't mess with each other, anything goes. Clear?"

Ruby squinted at the direction of Mint's finger. Seeing an extremely large tree in the middle of the clearing, approximately two hundred metres away, she nodded in affirmation.

"Alrighty then, let's step up to the line." The feline female called, smirking.

As she properly positioned herself at the starting line, Ruby's mind raced through every avenue she could use to win. Aside from Sprint, the great equalizer between Mint and herself, the only other Skill that would help in this scenario would be Acrobatics. The only way to properly utilize it would be to consider the Conservation of Momentum.

Basically, rather than stopping and turning at the tree, she would need to kick off the tree. Nothing too fancy, or she'd probably lose her balance and her momentum would be spent in the wrong direction.

 **Meticulous planning and analysis of the situation has increased your INT by 1.**

Not too helpful at the moment, but always nice to have.

"Ready? Here she flies!" Mint immediately positioned herself into a sprinting start after tossing the coin into the air.

Ruby closed her eyes, activating Sprint and focusing on the sound of the coin sailing through the air, before snapping them open immediately again when she remembered that light travelled faster than sound.

So much for being dramatic.

Her eyes focused on the coin as if in slow-motion, falling in a lopsided rotation. Before the clink of the coin hitting the ground even reached her ears, her eyes had already picked up on the change of direction of the coin. Without a second thought, Ruby took off, a cloud of dust forming behind her.

Her focus had paid off, it seemed, as her only competition seemed to be trailing slightly behind her at the same speed. She wasn't quite sure though, but there was nothing in front of her, so she assumed so.

"Whoa, you're pretty quick there, squirt!"

Opting to ignore her client to instead focus on the upcoming task of rebounding off the tree, Ruby quickly measured her remaining steps before making it to the tree.

'Fourteen… nine… five… _one_!'

At the thought, Ruby performed a great leap, her right foot making contact with the tree. Bending her knees to absorb the impact, she kicked off the tree with all the force she could muster and swiftly turned around. As soon as she made contact with the ground, she resumed her sprint after regaining her proper footing.

Sparing a quick glance behind her as she ran, Ruby noted that Mint was now a solid metre or two behind her. Her little stunt had made all the difference, it seemed. She crossed the finish line with a happy grin on her face.

 **Winner: Ruby Rose!**

Before anything else happened though, she checked her HP bar. Sprint was rather costly, after all.

 **Ruby Rose  
** **HP: 202/280**

Ruby quickly deactivated Sprint before it consumed any more of her HP just as Mint crossed the finish line herself.

"I gotta say, tha' was pretty great! Guess you're not just a smarty-pants, huh?" The older girl said, catching her breath and giving the Gamer a catlike grin. "Well, you won fair n' square, so you get ta do whatever ya like. Lemme know when you're ready to head in."

With that, Mint recovered and walked back into her house.

 **Chasing Cats - Quest Complete!**

 **Rewards: 100 EXP, Title: Fleeting Feline, Increased Influence with Mint**

 **You can now proceed to 'Rats, Rats and more Rats!'**

Even as Ruby was processing the fact that she apparently had a new Title, the game had already launched into yet another tutorial.

 **What you do can define you. And apparently, you've just done something noteworthy.**

 **Titles**

 **Be it Dragon Slayer, Herald of the Apocalypse or Class Retard, Titles are bequeathed to those who have done something of note. Unlike Classes or Alterations, these do not become available as you level or grow stronger; they can only be earned through specific actions or achievements. They can be extremely potent and provide benefits otherwise unobtainable, but beware, for some Titles can bring with them negative effects!**

 **When actively equipped, a Title will provide full effects. However, even when unequipped, most Titles still provide a Legacy Effect, which are watered-down versions of their active effect. You can only have one Title actively equipped at once.**

 **Some Titles are permanent, while others can be lost or altered depending on what you do, so be careful!**

In all honesty, Ruby had been expecting something like this at some point, since nearly everyone she'd met since the Game started had had their own unique Title.

"Okay then, let's check this out…" Ruby muttered to herself. "Menu. Title."

To her pleasure, the description of the new Title had already appeared without her needing to select it.

 **Fleeting Feline**

 **Description: You're as nimble and quick as a cat. Sometimes. It's a fleeting moment, really.**

 **Legacy: Increases AGI and DEX by 2. Felines are more inclined to listen to you. Sometimes.  
** **Active: Further increases AGI and DEX by 8.**

 **Unlocked by: Outracing someone with a Cat Faunus heritage.**

Ruby's eyes widened in surprise at the last bit. Mint didn't have any cat ears or glowy eyes, so Ruby had assumed that her feline features were just happenstance. She supposed Mint had to be half or even quarter Faunus.

In retrospect, she should've figured it out, really. She'd had plenty of hints thrown at her. Like her title. And her last name.

Aside from that minor revelation, Ruby boggled at the benefits of the Title. It was powerful, to say the least. Actively equipped, it was worth 20 stat points, plus the feline bonus thing, though the silver-eyed Gamer wondered if _that_ bit would ever come in handy.

Before she equipped the new Title, she decided to check out her currently equipped one just in case.

 **The Gamer**

 **Description: Livin' life as a Gamer sure has its perks!**

 **Legacy: Provides the 'Gamer's Body' and 'Gamer's Mind' Skills.  
** **Active: None.**

 **Unlocked by: Default Title.**

Well, switching over sure was a no-brainer.

Gaining 8 AGI and DEX at once had an immediate effect on Ruby's body. It was an indescribable feeling; nearly doubling how fit she was in certain aspects while leaving others untouched. Ruby could feel the distinct difference in her degree of control over her body. It was… unsettling to say the least. In a good way, though.

After flexing around a little to get used to her new motor abilities (and to regenerate her lost HP), our silver-eyed Gamer re-entered Mint's house. Making eye contact with her client, she nodded firmly.

"I'm ready."

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

"…Maybe I should've thought this through just a _little_ more."

As the door behind her closed, all the poor Gamer had to navigate the darkness was a torchlight handed to her by a hopeful Mint.

"…Okay, where's that lamp? Mint said it'd be around here somewhere…" Ruby murmured, shining the beam of light to the wall on the left. "And why didn't I think to bring a weapo-?"

Ruby leapt back mid-sentence on instinct, avoiding a tunnelling… thing that snapped at her.

 **Through continuous use, your Detect Bloodthirst Skill has levelled up by 1!**

She shined the light onto the creature, which resembled some sort of enlarged rat, coming up to her knees. It had a skull-like mask with edged teeth, much like a Beowolf did, and its tail resembled a human spine. And like every other Grimm, its eyes displayed a desire to rend things to pieces.

Thinking quickly, Ruby activated Observe.

 **Ziggurat  
** **Level: 5  
** **HP: 70/70**

 **STR: 8  
** **AGI: 15  
** **VIT: 1  
** **DEX: 15  
** **INT: 3  
** **WIS: 3  
** **LUK: 2**

It seemed to be rather weak, at least. Leaping over a swipe from its tail, Ruby quickly grabbed the nearest object she could find in the dark basement, which turned out to be a… foam bat, of sorts? Not a very good weapon.

Quickly tossing it at the Ziggurat, Ruby nearly yelped when the number ' **6** ' emerged floating from the Grimm. Not literally, but through her strange HUD of sorts. Well, as strange as it was, it was a boon rather than a hindrance.

Without thinking too much about it, she picked up the next thing she could find; a table tennis bat.

This… this she could use. While it wasn't exactly the best weapon ever, it was at least solid. Unlike that stupid foam bat that did only 6 damage when thrown. Actually, how did that even deal so much damage? It was made of foam for cryi-

Ahem. Yes, this would do, for now.

Dodging yet another swipe from the Ziggurat, Ruby counterattacked this time, swinging the small bat and braining the animalistic Grimm. Edge first, of course. This time, the number '15' appeared. Quickly following up on her target's flinch, Ruby landed yet another hit for another ' **15** ', while only grazing the Grimm on the third, dealing only 2 damage.

 **You have performed a Special-**

The Grimm, much more cautious now, vanished back into the darkness. Of course, said darkness parted when Ruby pointed her torchlight at it. She stared.

A whole swarm of Ziggurats stared back.

"Oh." Her mouth formed an 'O'.

Theirs simply had teeth. Lots and lots of sharp, sharp teeth.

She couldn't fight this many in the dark. Moving quickly before they charged at her, the Gamer girl swung her torch back to the place where Mint had told her the lamp was. Finally managing to catch a glimpse of it, Ruby desperately hoped that it was still in working order, or even plugged in for that matter.

As she lunged for it, she frisked about for the switch. Was it a pull switch, a foot switch, or a stand switch?

It was certainly a question she'd asked herself before when turning on a new lamp. As such, she was experienced. Shining her torch at the lamp head revealed no string to pull. Swinging her torch downwards showed no obvious switch on the lamp pole, so Ruby moved down further to discover that it was indeed a foot switch.

When she reached the lamp a mere second later, she immediately stomped on the switch, turning lamp on.

Whirling around, she deposited the torchlight into her inventory and scanned the room for a proper weapon. A nearby wrench caught her eye.

She made a grab for it. While it was a little heavy and rusty, it was properly balanced and was probably going to be a much more effective weapon than the table tennis bat. Speaking of which, she swapped the bat into a reverse grip.

"Time to smash." Ruby said, smirking at her awesome one-liner. Not that there was anyone that could appreciate it.

She launched herself into the lead approaching Ziggurat. With two makeshift weapons this time and proper vision, it was much easier to deal with than the first Ziggurat. Of course, the problem was that there were at least thirty more.

Ruby soon found herself in a pattern of sorts. Dodge or parry with the bat and counterattack with the wrench, which yielded 24 damage per hit. If two or more attack at once, focus on survival. Slow and steady. As she clobbered an attacking Ziggurat for the third time (she wasn't sure, it was getting rather hard to keep track), it rolled over and began to dissolve. A ' **+25 EXP** ' appeared this time.

 **Through continuo-**

 **Through contin-**

 **Learning to take-**

Ruby grinned. If she survived, she would level up for sure. With her focus wavering, though, a Ziggurat managed to get a hit in.

 **You have performed a-**

As more of the swarm surrounded her, Ruby began to take a few more hits. They didn't hurt too much individually and dealt only 4 or 5 damage, but the damage did start to add up over time.

When Ruby had successfully eliminated her fifteenth (or was it sixteenth?) Ziggurat, she received a message.

 **You have gained a Level! You are now Level 8.**

 **You have gained a Class Rank! You are now a Rank 2 Novice.**

Bearing a grin on her face, Ruby quickly checked her health bar. Unfortunately, it did not restore itself upon levelling, though she did notice the 20HP she gained from levelling added retroactively.

 **Ruby Rose  
** **HP: 112/310**

Quickly scuffing down a pastry from her Inventory and mentally thanking Basil, she continued to demolish the rest of the swarm.

 **Through continu-**

 **Through con-**

By the end of it all, Ruby had formed an opinion on the combat system. It was effectively real-time combat, as expected, and very skill dependent. Parrying and dodging were the keys to victory here, much like in real life. The only thing the Game did to affect this was to put in numbers.

At maximum strength, the wrench would always deal 24 damage. The bat would always deal 15 damage. If it grazed, it would deal a portion of the damage proportional to how much impact the Ziggurat had avoided.

A swing at half strength reduced the damage dealt by half, but there was a lower limit and an upper limit in place. If the attack wasn't meant to be an attack, such as the wrench simply touching the rat-like Grimm, it would not be considered an attack. However, if it was intentionally swung as an attack, but with no real effort put behind it, both the wrench and the bat would deal a minimum of 2 damage.

A parry against the body of the Grimm dealt grazed damage. A parry against the mask dealt none. Getting bitten by the teeth or swiped by the tail-like was rather painful, but she would receive only 5 damage. Get hit by anything else and she would receive 4. Parrying it with her weapons neutralized the damage completely. Parrying it with her body counted as grazed damage.

It was basically the laws of physics put into numbers. And numbers were something she could understand.

Sinking her wrench into the last Ziggurat and finishing it off with a quick slash of her tennis bat, Ruby remained on guard for a while; even after the Grimm had completely dissolved into the now familiar vanishing black particles. When she was sure nothing else would happen, she fell unceremoniously onto her butt, exhausted from the constant focus she had needed to maintain.

"There's no boss or anything, right…?" Ruby whispered hopefully to the empty room.

There was no answer, which in this scenario, was a fantastic thing. After resting for a few moments with no sign of Grimm in sight, Ruby stood up and made her way back up the stairs. Groaning, of course. No one likes climbing stairs after an intense workout, even if she couldn't actually feel the burn anymore.

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

"Heyyyyy, you're alive!" Mint cheered. "Wow, some fight, huh? I could hear ya from up here."

Ruby nodded. "I think I got all of them. Thirty four, if I counted right."

The part-Faunus girl whistled. "Ya know, for some reason, I'm not too surprised that you managed to take care of 'em. You could probably beat me up if you wanted to, huh?"

Resisting the urge to smile cheekily (but utterly failing anyway), Ruby nodded again. "Yup!"

"Hah! I like your spunk, squirt. Here's ya reward, and a lil' extra. You've earned it."

 **Rats, Rats and More Rats! – Quest Complete**

 **Reward: 150 EXP, 1500 Lien, Increased Reputation with Patch Island**

 **Influence Bonus (Mint): 500 Lien**

 **You have gained a Class Rank! You are now a Rank 3 Novice.**

Ruby was surprised at the bonus. "You don't have to, you know."

Mint snorted. "Ya cost a helluva lot less than Huntsmen, and ya did just as good a job. I should be paying ya more, really." She shrugged. "Just take it."

"Well, if you insist." The Gamer beamed happily. Who knew Influence could be so helpful?

"Oh, and you can keep the wrench, but gimme back the bat will ya?" The feline female smirked. "I've got a game this weekend."

"Ehehe, sure." Ruby handed over the tennis bat, or what was left of it. It wasn't exactly in the best shape, having been pitted against the hard skulls and sharp teeth of the Ziggurats over and over again. Mint stared at what used to be her bat for a while, before shaking her head.

"Ya know what? I don't wanna know. Just keep it." She sighed, massaging her temples.

Ruby rubbed the back of her head, flashing Mint a sheepish grin. "Um… pleasure doing business with you?"

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

There were a couple of things she had ignored earlier in favour of focusing on the battle, so Ruby deemed it wise to catch up on what she missed. "Log."

Sure enough, there were a couple of things that stood out.

 **11\. You have performed a Special Action! By attacking with a swingable small-sized melee weapon, you have unlocked a new Skill!**

 **Dagger Mastery (Passive) – Level 3**

 **Description: It's not just for daggers though. Anything shorter than your elbow to wrist length falls under this category. Confusing? Maybe. Deadly? Definitely. Increases damage dealt when using daggers or dagger-like weapons by 3%.**

Two other log messages noted the two level ups of the Skill. As with the Unarmed Mastery, the Skill provided some basic knowledge on how _not_ to swing a bladed weapon and injure herself in the process. It would definitely be useful in the long run.

Ruby did find it hilarious that a table tennis bat qualified as a dagger though. Moving right along.

 **7\. You have performed a Special Action! By getting hit by a physical attack, you have unlocked a new Skill!**

 **Physical Endurance (Passive) – Level 2**

 **Description: No pain, no gain. What doesn't kill you make you stronger. Oh, and try not to get hit next time. Decreases physical damage received by 1%.**

 **5\. Learning to take a hit has increased your VIT by 1.**

Apparently, every two levels of Physical Endurance granted one point of VIT. Definitely a useful Skill.

The other messages showed an increase to Detect Bloodthirst, which was now at Level 4 and a couple of Level Up and Quest Complete messages.

All in all, it was a rather profitable quest. Actually, every quest so far seemed to be profitable. The trick seemed to be finding them.

The Drifter's Board only had one quest left at the moment, and a moderately dangerous one at that. Unless she managed to stumble upon another random quest like rescuing Leita, Ruby doubted she'd be able to progress EXP-wise, or get more Lien, for that matter.

That meant that she was stuck with maximising natural growth instead. Of course, she also had to choose what to focus on first.

Strength would be easy; she could probably sneak a few rounds on the weights back home when both Yang and her dad were out at work. Agility would need a lot of Acrobatics and Sprint training, though she suspect that normal running at top speed might be able to increase it as well. Vitality should come as long as she kept up her physical workouts. Dexterity could be increased with dancing and coin flipping. Maybe she should learn the piano as well; it seemed like something that could help.

The mental stats were a bit harder to figure out. Ruby figured studying and reading a few books could increase her intelligence. Wisdom was a bit of a tough nut to crack; she hoped that it would increase on its own without any special focus. Luck would have a theoretical maximum of Leita's LUK for the moment.

On her list of priorities, though, Ruby figured LUK would be the most practical thing to raise first. If she was lucky enough, she just might discover new quests or ways to increase things; circumstances would change around her to her benefit. Yes, LUK was definitely the best option to focus on first.

Leita wouldn't always be available though. So what should her secondary focus be?

The physical attributes weren't too important at the moment. She wouldn't be in combat regularly. That left her mental attributes to decide between, and INT was a much easier stat to deal with. Unless…

What about tactics? If she were to focus on purely strategic games, such as Chess, Go, or Shogi, she might be able to raise her WIS as well! Or did those count as INT-based games? Maybe both? Well, there was only one way to find out.

And so, Ruby departed to the one place where some of the wisest people she knew played strategy games all day.

Patch Island Sunset Retirement Home.

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

"Bingo!"

Ruby learnt a great many things at the Patch Island Sunset Retirement Home. For one, they played Bingo a lot more than they played Chess. Which was a LUK based game. Secondly, some old people were really strong. Like, _scary_ strong. For instance:

"Observe."

 **Erin Aquador  
** **Title: Tidal Huntress (Retired)  
** **Level: 92**

 **HP: 1145/1145  
** **AP: 1883/1883**

 **STR: 34  
** **AGI: 62  
** **VIT: 30  
** **DEX: 57  
** **INT: 193  
** **WIS: 245  
** **LUK: 102**

…And, "Observe."

 **Jiang Bai Hu  
** **Title: White Tiger (Retired)  
** **Level: 89**

 **HP: 2220/2220  
** **AP: 1155/1155**

 **STR: 85  
** **AGI: 92  
** **VIT: 80  
** **DEX: 64  
** **INT: 112  
** **WIS: 134  
** **LUK: 63**

 **Through continuous use, your Observe Skill has levelled up by 1!**

"Thirty seven."

"Bingo!" Jiang Bai Hu roared.

Ruby sighed. Thirdly, old people would wipe the floor with her alright, no questions asked. How embarrassing.

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

 _A/N: Heh, look! I finally updated! In time for Christmas too! Merry Christmas, guys._

… _I think I may have lost my touch a little, though. It's up for you guys to judge. The combat system has finally been decided on. It was a toss-up between this or a slightly more 'system-assisted' combat, but this seemed to make a bit more sense, especially in the long run. I may add some system-assisted skills at some point though._

 _Ziggurats, because that was such an obvious name that loosely fits into the Grimm naming system. (Legends, Constellations, Puns, Foreign Languages)_

 _There will be a short time skip of a couple of weeks at the beginning of the next chapter. I'm not going to go into another chapter of growth. This chapter introduced Titles and Basic Combat. With most of the basic systems out of the way, I'm going to start moving the plot along. Of course, you could say Ruby abusing the system is pretty much the entire plot, but it's time for the story to start, and the intro to end._

 _Cheers, guys._


	7. Chapter 7: The Path of Adventure

**Chapter 7: The Path of Adventure**

 _A/N: Figured I'd get back into it, since I'm on break at the moment._

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

"So, you nervous, sis?" A way-too-exuberant Yang swerved in front of Ruby, flashing her a happy grin.

"A little." Ruby admitted. So what if she was the Gamer? The first day at a new schoolfreaks _everyone_ out, even if her Gamer's Mind skill made it a little better. She couldn't feel the butterflies in her stomach, but she _knew_ they was there, just ready to flutter out.

She supposed that if she thought that she _should_ be nervous, the Gamer's Mind Skill would leave it be, or maybe it only worked in battle. Ruby wasn't sure. Still nervous, though.

"Relax, you'll be fine!" Yang chirped, before taking a seat and chomping down on her toast. "Ahm shu ud du mm-kay. You've got a couple of other people from your old school signing up, right?"

"Nope. I'm all alone. All _aloooone…_ " Ruby poked at a sausage depressedly, before suddenly wailing. "Everyone else got held back a year!"

" _You_ graduated early." The older girl corrected her. "Don't you know any seniors?"

"I know you. And Old Man Jiang and Madam Erin."

"The _other_ kind of seniors, sis. Anyone else besides me?"

"No."

Yang sighed. "Rubes, you gotta learn to socialize a bit more."

"I socialize plenty! There's Old Man Jiang and Madam Erin and Aru and Leita and Lilka and Basil and you and Dad and Uncle Qrow and Zwei-"

Yang stopped her. "People your age, Ruby."

"Don't wanna." Ruby puffed her cheeks. "They're all super lame. Okay, that's a bit mean, they're not _super_ lame, but they don't really like strawberries and they _don't care about my baby_!"

The older blonde seemed to be taken aback by Ruby's vehement tone. "Er... try talking about something else?"

"I don't _wanna_ talk about something else." Ruby whined. "What's there to even talk about?"

Yang blinked. Ruby had a point. What else was there to talk about? In fact, she couldn't remember a single conversation topic she'd used to break the ice when _she_ was thirteen.

"Uh… boys?" Yang ventured hesitantly before mentally kicking herself.

"Gross." Ruby made a face.

"Video games?"

"They think games are for nerds." Ruby huffed.

"…Books?"

"I don't read much. And they think it's nerdy too."

"Movies? Sports? Classwork?"

"Nope, nope, and they just want to copy my homework." The Gamer rolled her eyes. "Face it Yang, I'm hopeless."

Said blonde was starting to agree, but being the elder sister she was obliged to try anyway. "Just promise me you'll try to make a friend, okay? You're going to Signal now; I'm sure there'll be a ton of weapon nuts around."

"…I'll try." Ruby agreed, before throwing a weak glare at her sister. "Don't expect any miracles, though."

"Eh, I'll take what I can get." Yang shrugged, before moving to the sink to wash up. "C'mon, we gotta leave soon. You don't wanna be late for your first day."

"Aye, aye, Cap'n!"

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

It had been a pretty fun couple of weeks for Ruby, but the freedom of summer (albeit accompanied by its evil nemesis, the Tyrannical Curfew!) had ended, bringing with it the dreaded return to school. And not just any school, she was going to Signal now. A fresh new start for a fresh new student! It was gonna be awesome!

Pssshyeah right. Her first day at Patch Kindergarten sucked. Her first day at Sunset Elementary sucked. Her first day at prep school sucked. Everyone just formed groups with people they already knew, leaving her sitting by herself in the corner. So why would Signal Academy be any different?

Ugh, just thinking about it put Ruby into a bad mood. Sure, she'd declared to Yang that people her own age were lame. And they were, sometimes. But it would be… you know, _nice_ if she had a friend in class. And even if they were lame, they'd be the _good_ kind of lame, y'know?

'Well', Ruby assured herself, 'At least I have Yang here.'

At the thought, the silver-eyed girl snuck a glance at her older sister, who was strutting down the street like she owned the place. Okay, maybe she wasn't strutting. And it wasn't the street, it was the sidewalk. Okay, fine, her sister was walking down the sidewalk, but even if it didn't sound like much, Yang was brimming with sheer confidence.

Ruby found herself matching her sister step for step. Left. Right. Left. Right. Now if only she could look as good as Yang did doing it.

Speaking of the blonde, Yang was being surprisingly quiet this morning. On a normal day, the blonde would be chattering her mouth off and making horrible puns and laughing at them. But not today. It was as if Yang could kind of tell that she needed some quiet time to adjust to a new school.

The thirteen year old was grateful for it, but she wished that Yang would just start talking, if only to take her mind off things.

About five seconds or so later, Ruby remembered to breathe, releasing the breath she hadn't known she had been holding.

What was the point of Gamer's Mind if it did nothing to help her nervousness? Stupid useless-but-very-useful-actually-never-mind-I-take-that-back Skill. Pah.

Ruby decided to steer her thoughts into a more productive direction. Mainly, her progress as The Gamer.

Going to Patch Island's Sunset Retirement Home had been a pretty brilliant idea, if she dared say so herself. Bingo Night was free to join, and she even won a prize once! Granted, it wasn't something she would normally use (a fancy new **Walking Cane** ), but it could come in handy someday.

Of course, Bingo had pulled up her LUK considering the monstrous competition, but only by an extremely miniscule amount. She had nothing to lose from joining, after all.

The real gem of visiting the place however, had nothing to do with the Game. It was something else entirely.

Madam Erin, the totally badass Level 92 Ex-Huntress, had a particular fondness of Chess. A mother of two and a grandmother of five, she had been wonderfully patient with teaching Ruby the intricacies of the game. She could be scary though, like that one time Old Man Jiang had called her an old crone.

"Excuse me?" Her voice had been deathly quiet, her glare promising an excruciating death.

The retired Huntsman had apologized profusely at once, before winking at Ruby and mouthing 'Crazy witch.'

Old Man Jiang was a quirky fellow who Ruby felt was entirely too enthusiastic about Bingo. As eccentric as he was (he simply _insisted_ on being called Old Man Jiang), the old man had a wealth of experience and wisdom collected throughout his many years of life. He had no family, but instead had an apprentice he frequently mentioned in passing as 'that stupid boy', often with a fond smile.

They had regaled Ruby with stories of their life as one of Remnant's Elites. How Old Man Jiang once faced down a Grimm as tall as a mountain (Ruby had a suspicion he was exaggerating), how Madam Erin had commanded over a hundred Huntsmen and Huntresses against a mighty horde of Grimm, how the two had first met during a joint mission to Vacuo, and much, much more.

There was so much history; so many wonderful stories that Ruby had completely forgotten about her Semblance until it reared its not-so-ugly head, announcing that her INT and WIS had risen by 1 for… something to do with history. She wasn't paying much attention to the Game at that point, really.

'Old people are so cool.' Ruby remembered thinking. She'd grown fond of the two over the past two weeks, treating them like her very own surrogate grandparents.

Aside from the Retirement Home, her typical day had involved quite a bit of travel. She'd Sprint to The Wild West on some mornings to hang out with her young friends. Aru and the girls certainly welcomed her presence; she didn't even have to be a customer. Aru even plopped a bowl of strawberries for her on the house every now and then, thanking her for keeping his daughters company.

Of course, Ruby didn't just gamble with Leita and Lilka; sometimes Leita would give Ruby a book and tell her to sit down and read, sometimes Lilka insisted that they played house (which Ruby secretly enjoyed, given her new-found propensity towards Acting), and sometimes the two girls would plead for Ruby to teach them something cool, like cartwheels. And cartwheels. And more cartwheels.

Aru had vetoed the somersaults and backflips.

The most noteworthy thing that occurred during those times was the discovery of the Crafting Skill, which popped up when Lilka decided to teach Ruby how to properly fold a paper crane.

 **Crafting (Profession) – Level: 1**

 **Description: The art of making something out of something else. You can create items by using this Skill and having the necessary materials on hand. Higher levels will allow the implementation of more advanced and complex techniques. A master artificer can work with even the most difficult of materials.**

 **Requires materials.**

Ruby had immediately resolved to utterly master this Skill, if only because it would bring her one step closer to giving birth to her baby.

Upon further raising it, Ruby found that levelling it up increased her DEX too. Double yay!

On other days, Ruby would head for Basil's Bakery instead. Now, as he was officially open for business, she couldn't get free pastries outright anymore. He was willing to give her a discount of twenty percent though, as business was indeed booming, and offered the random odd job or two every now and then in exchange for some pastries and short change.

Too bad they didn't count as Quests. They _did_ increase her Influence with Basil though.

She did consider asking Basil about the leftovers that he didn't manage to sell throughout the day, thinking she could try putting them in stasis in her Inventory. However, staying till closing time changed her mind almost immediately; a man collected them to distribute to orphanages. Bread could last for days, after all.

What a nice guy.

She was sure that Basil would've spared her one or two, but ultimately decided against it. Besides, it seemed a bit too cheap for her tastes.

Oh, she'd also completed the last Quest on the Drifter's Board from a guy named Milo about collecting some strange plants called Gladeflowers (which weren't actually flowers) and a few samples of Blavo Nuts (which were actually berries). She had been concerned about the danger, so she'd prepared by stocking up on more pastries to outrun any more Lone Beowolves.

She needn't have bothered. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Her Detect Bloodthirst Skill hadn't even activated once. It ended up being a simple affair of identifying the correct plants, which was actually harder than it looked. She did manage to pick up two new Skills here too, though.

 **Botany (Profession) – Level: 1**

 **Description: The difference between life and death often hinges on whether or not you ate that mushroom. This Skill allows you to identify plants and their properties. Higher levels allow you to identify rare plants and even breed them. A master botanist is said to be able to understand the language of plants.**

And:

 **Foraging (Profession) – Level: 1**

 **Description: A necessary survival skill. Be prepared! This Skill allows you to harvest nature's bounty from the environment. Higher levels allow you to increase your collection efficiency and amount. A master forager is said to be able to survive in any environment.**

Milo was a pretty geeky guy though. He was really smart, if a bit messy and unmotivated, but once he got going, he was kinda impossible to stop. He tried to tell her about the intrinsic details of plant biology, during which Ruby developed a headache after five minutes of his motor mouth. It was definitely interesting, if a bit dry at times, but Ruby did gain a couple of INT from it.

Still, while she had tons of fun with her new friends, Ruby had been a bit disappointed by the lack of family time over the last two weeks. Dad had been called for another urgent mission again, this time to Atlas. Yang had gotten progressively busier with her job, sometimes working eight-hour shifts back to back. She checked in on Ruby twice a day, but that was about the extent of their interaction.

Well, at least she had Zwei. And her precious baby.

On the plus side, Dad was due back tomorrow, and Yang didn't have work anymore on account of the school term, so triple yay! Family time ahoy!

Ruby blamed Leita for all the pirate speak she was doing lately. It was a good book, though. Walk the plank, matey! Arr! Yarr!

"…Rubes, what are you doing?" Yang voice sailed through the air, her tone dry and amused.

It was at that moment that Ruby realized she had been impersonating a pirate physically as well. Of course, her curved finger wasn't anywhere near as intimidating as a pirate's hook. Her imaginary cutlass wasn't quite as sharp as a real one either.

"..."

Yang wasn't the only one looking. It seemed like the whole street was staring at her, some with amused smirks and others with outright concern. Probably for her mental health.

"…"

Her face promptly caught fire.

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

"-and so, to the new students, welcome. And to our returning students, welcome home." The Principal of Signal, Professor Stiltzkin concluded.

That was a pretty cheesy ending to a pretty cheesy speech. Something about finding paths and growing like plants and sunrise. Ruby deduced that Professor Stiltzkin probably liked nature a lot. The man had messy brown hair and seemed to chew on a reed or something when he wasn't talking.

Of course, Ruby had met him a couple of times before, seeing as he'd come over a few times to talk to Dad; sometimes Uncle Qrow would tag along. He was a pretty weird guy.

"And that concludes the Welcoming Ceremony. Second Years and Third Years, you should already have your schedules. Classes will proceed as normal. First years, please remain seated. You will be given a briefing of what is to be expected of you." The stern looking Vice-Principal, Professor Beldam announced.

Now all that was _supposed_ to be all prim and proper, but well… Ruby had seen the blonde Vice-Principal drunk once. Actually, come to think about it, Ruby had probably seen about half the teachers at Signal drunk. It was a side-effect of having Taiyang Xiao Long as her father, though the man himself was always very careful to not get drunk around Ruby. Not so much around Yang, though.

Aaaanyway, her point being; it was a little hard to take them seriously after seeing them giggling like a gaggle of schoolgirls. Yes, even the men.

Gaggle. Was that the right collective noun-thingy? It seemed like it. Sounded kinda funny though.

Gaggle of schoolgirls. Gaggle. Hmmm…

Eh, she'd check with Yang later.

Meanwhile, as the returning students left the Assembly Hall, the whispers of the First Years around gradually grew louder, as the whispers of students tend to do. Her eyes caught an unremarkable pair of boys playing a game on their Scrolls, but it looked like that one casual survival game with a bird that faded into obscurity last year.

Pfft. Lame.

A finger tapped her shoulder twice, gaining her attention. "Hey, wasn't the VP kinda hot?"

"Huh?" She turned to face the questioner, who turned out to be a very regular-looking brunette boy with spiky hair.

The boy in question suddenly turned very, very red. "Sorry, I thought you were a guy! I mean, your hair was short and all and-"

Wow, that was a new low. Mistaken for a guy on the first day of school. Plus what was with the weird question anyway? Oh well, no real harm done apart from her perpetually crumbling self-esteem, so she shrugged and accepted his apology.

Once the last of the senior students exited the hall, leaving the thirty or so First Years seated within, Professor Beldam made her way back to the podium.

"Observe."

 **Bryna Beldam  
** **Title: Unknown  
** **Level: Unknown**

Well, that was kinda unsurprising. Observing Dad had given her the same results. Just the name and a bunch of "Unknown"s, nothing else. Ruby assumed that they were probably way out of her league or something, meaning they were higher levelled than Madam Erin. A scary thought, that was for sure.

A screech from some microphone feedback drew her attention immediately, and Professor Beldam cleared her throat before launching into speech.

"There are a few things that all First Years need to take note of," she began. "Firstly, Signal Academy is a firm believer of independence; proper maintenance of all equipment should be of second nature to all Huntsmen. Furthermore, weapons are extensions of your own body, and no one should know your weapon better than you do. Therefore, you are all expected to create your own personal weapons by the end of your second year at Signal Academy. Failure to do so will result in expulsion."

She paused and gave them an understanding, yet stern, smile. How a smile could be stern, Ruby would never know. "Now, we realize that this is indeed a tall order for some of you. It is not an easy task; the vast majority of you have yet to even determine your preferred style of fighting. Do not fret, we have experienced teachers available for every conventional weapon. For those who decide to venture into more exotic ways of combat, we will offer you the best instruction we can in establishing your own forms and techniques. Which brings me to my next point."

"You will each be assigned a teacher as your personal mentor for this purpose, who will guide and watch over you during your stay in Signal. Should you require any assistance in this matter, do not hesitate to contact them. Should they be unavailable at the time, be patient and they will get back to you as soon as they can. Should they be unable to help, they will do their best to direct you to someone who can."

"Assistance and instruction will be given to you in crafting your weapon, regardless of your choice. When you have decided on your fighting form, your mentor will introduce you to our technicians and blacksmiths, where you will learn and begin this process. We have a range of materials for you to use; however, should you require rarer or more exotic materials, you will have to find the means to procure them yourself or simply make do with what we provide."

Many students were already whispering to one another frantically, while Ruby simply wondered about Signal's selection. Would they have everything needed for Crescent Rose?

"Silence." Professor Beldam commanded in a soft, yet firm voice, causing the gradually rising noise levels to immediately die down. "Do not panic. Rest assured, only a handful of students have failed to complete this task; and not because of its difficulty, but because of their lackadaisical attitude towards it. As long as you put in your full effort towards it, I see no reason for you to be expelled."

She pressed on. "Aside from that, you will receive your schedules by the end of your first class. There are only two compulsory classes, Combat Analysis and Aura Management. The rest of your schedule is empty. However, you are expected to fill it in with electives of your choice. The minimum number of electives required to pass is three. However, you are free to take as many as you wish."

"One final thing to take note of. The Vale Regional Championship will be held at the end of the year as usual. Traditionally, Signal Academy will send a total of twelve students; our top three fighters overall, and our top three from each Year. You will be given the opportunity to be involved in two tournaments to decide Signal's representatives; an Inter-Year Tournament and the First Year Tournament. Participation in the former is optional, while the latter is mandatory."

"Should you emerge as one of representatives from the Inter-Year Tournament, you will be exempted from the First Year Tournament. While such a scenario is rare given the experience gap, it has most certainly happened before. Therefore, I encourage you to participate, if only to better hone your skill in combat."

"Remember, every single one of you have been accepted into this academy for the potential that you hold. We expect only great things from you. Do Signal proud."

 **Story Quest: A Signal of Hope**

 **Description: Complete the first step of the journey to become a Huntress!**

 **Objectives:  
** **\- Make it through your First Year at Signal Academy  
** **\- Make it through your Second Year at Signal Academy  
** **\- Make it through your Third Year at Signal Academy  
** **\- Craft your own weapon before the end of Second Year  
** **\- Reach Level 20 before the end of Third Year**

 **Reward: 15,000 EXP, A Title, Increased Renown in Vale**

 **This quest is mandatory.**

"That is all. We will now proceed to the unlocking of your Aura, which will be handled by your personal mentor." Professor Beldam announced. "When your name is called, please exit the hall and meet with your mentor."

While the list of names were run through, Ruby attempted to process all the information that had been given to her. First off, why was this particular quest labelled a 'Story Quest' and not a 'Long-Term Quest'? Was it particularly important? Well, failure obviously meant the inability to become a Huntress, but that was about it.

Oh Oum, was she basically an RPG character after all, with pre-determined storylines and all that stuff? Wait, no. Even if she failed the Quest, life would go on.

Maybe it was just an important chapter in her life, and thus labelled as a 'Story Quest'.

Yeah, that made more sense than predetermination. She'd stick with it until she came across a better explanation.

Her mini-existential crisis momentarily averted, she thought instead of the Vale Regional Championship. Yang had participated in it the year before as Signal's top Second Year student, if she remembered correctly. Or was it second top student? She added the question into the 'Ask Yang later' folder in her brain.

"-Ruby Rose, and Rust Ruedevark, please meet your mentor outside." Professor Beldam's voice calling her name interrupted her thoughts.

Standing up, noting two other students who did so as well, Ruby did as she was told and made her way to the heavy doors of the hall. She almost bounced with excitement wondering who her mentor was, only to be met with the cockiest grin as she stepped through the doors.

Ruby knew only one man who grinned so cockily, and her own grin widened to match his.

"Uncle Qrooooooooooooow!" She launched herself at her awesomest and most favouritest uncle. Of course, he was also her only uncle, but that particular detail had never really mattered very much to Ruby.

As per their little greeting ritual, Qrow sidestepped a little, causing the tiny human missile to latch onto his arm rather than his entire body, before ruffling her hair. "Hey there, kiddo."

"This. Is. Awesome! I can't believe you're actually my mentor!" Ruby chirped excitedly. "I mean, like really, what are the odds of something this awesome happening?!"

Qrow chuckled at that. "Pretty much one hundred percent. We pulled a coupla' strings to make it happen." He winked at her.

So! Awesome!

"But we'll talk later. I gotta do all the borin' professor stuff first." He rolled his eyes, indicating towards the other two students who were just coming through the door, causing Ruby to slide off his arm.

The silver-eyed Gamer could barely hold in her excitement as she eyed her co-mentees. One was a vertically challenged boy with reddish-brown hair, while the other was a lithe girl with black hair and incredibly deep blue eyes. Much like her, they were dressed in the official uniform of Signal Academy; white blazer, blue undershirt and black slacks or skirt.

Before she could learn any more about them, though, Qrow yelled out to 'em. "Alright, you punks follow me. We're headin' to my Nest."

The two First Years stiffened at his harsh tone, while Ruby simply nodded at her Uncle's professional tone. Or his no-nonsense-you'd-better-listen tone, as she'd come to know it as.

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

Uncle Qrow's office, or as he'd so aptly called it, his 'Nest', was a total mess. The floor was haphazardly covered with a mix of wayward documents, food wrappers, various emptied liquor bottles and the like.

'Pretty much the same as his apartment, really,' Ruby recalled. The office was a tad bit neater, though.

Her Uncle took a spot on the floor, leaning against the wall. "Alright, siddown wherever you want. I've just cleaned the place, so nothin' on the floor's important."

Following his example, Ruby plopped down onto the floor opposite him, the other two students hesitantly following her lead, seemingly horrified that _this_ was 'cleaned.'

"Rust whatever and Lapis something, right?" Qrow asked, eyeing the two, who weren't sure whether to nod or not. "Let me get one thing straight. There's no silver spoon here."

"If you've got a smart question, ask. If you think your question is even the tiniest bit stupid, don't. If you can find your answer in a book, you'd better damn well look through it first before coming to me." His eyes narrowed. "I'm not here to baby you. You're in Signal now. We train warriors, not wannabe punks in diapers. If you can solve your problem on your own, do it."

"That said, if you really feel you can't do it on your own, then come to me." Qrow relented. He leaned back, procured a flask from out of nowhere and took a swig. "It'd better be a real problem, though."

"Now, I'm responsible for advising you on all forms of your personal combat development, even the stupidest things like your confidence or whatever the hell you wear. You got any problem in that department, I'm the one to look for. Capiche?" He asked, eyebrow raised.

Ruby quick nod was mimicked by the other two.

"Good. Time for the introductions. Qrow Branwen. Call me whatever ya want. I don't really give a damn." He smirked, before pointing at his niece. "You're next."

Ruby smiled and began. "Hi! I'm Ruby!"

"…"

There was a moment of silence, before Qrow face palmed. "Anything else?"

"Um, was I supposed to say more?" Ruby head tilted to the side.

Uncle Qrow only said his name, right? She never really got these kinds of things. Oh wait, he did say something about calling him whatever. It was worth a shot.

"…You can call me Ruby?"

That sounded weird. Her uncle seemed to think so too, if the swig he took was any indication.

"Ugh, never mind. You, boy, your turn. Try to do a better job." Qrow said, before adding in a snide remark at Ruby's expense. "Not that it'll be too hard."

The reddish-brown haired boy nodded. "My name's Rust Ruedevark. I graduated from Nightingale Prep. Call me Rust." And with that, he fell silent.

Qrow's eyes twitched. "…"

"Okay, that was… better. Last girl, go." He pointed.

"…I'm Lapis. Lapis Lazura." Cue the silence.

"Okay, it's pretty clear to me that all three of you _have_ to be socially retarded in some form or another." Qrow said, massaging his temples. "Let's try again. State your name, your favourite type of weapon and what kind of fighting you think you'd be good at."

"Um… Uncle Qrow? What do you mean by kind of fighting?" Ruby ventured.

"What range you're suited for, whether you're suited for speed, power, or endurance, that sort of thing." He answered rather impatiently. "Go on. Quickly."

"Um, hi again! I'm Ruby Rose and my favourite weapon type is the scythe! I'm not sure what kind of range I'm best at, and agility is my best attribute, so I'm a speed-type, I guess?"

Rust quickly chimed straight after. "My name's Rust Ruedevark. I like swords and shotguns. I'd like to think I'm pretty balanced all around."

"Lapis Lazura. I like Dust and spears. I'm also a speed-type, I suppose. Mid to long-range combat would probably suit me best."

Hearing what they liked and how they described themselves, Ruby finally gave into the temptation of Observing her two new schoolmates.

 **Rust Ruedevark  
** **Title: None  
** **Level: 8**

 **HP: 390/390**

 **STR: 16  
** **AGI: 15  
** **VIT: 18  
** **DEX: 13  
** **INT: 14  
** **WIS: 14  
** **LUK: 16**

 **Lapis Lazura  
** **Title: Moon Dancer  
** **Level: 9**

 **HP: 300/300**

 **STR: 8  
** **AGI: 33  
** **VIT: 9  
** **DEX: 24  
** **INT: 21  
** **WIS: 14  
** **LUK: 20**

Interesting. She wondered what Moon Dancer did. It sounded kinda cool, sorta like Leita's Dark Child.

"Bah, good enough, I guess." Qrow waved them away. "Let's just get to the Aura part. I assume you're all not dumb enough know what Aura is?" He got three nods. "Good."

"Now, Aura normally manifests through training and willpower. Lots of it. But here's the deal, we're a combat school, and there'll be lots of sparring involved. To make sure you don't die on the first day, we take the shortcut route and unlock your Aura from the get go." The professor briefed, his eyes sharp enough to cut steel. "This isn't necessarily a good thing. Overdependence on your Aura will more than likely hinder the growth of your body."

"So let me warn you now. If your body's weak, your Aura won't be able to save you. Think of it as a multiplier; a hundred times zero will remain zero. Improve your zero to a one, and the result changes drastically." He explained. "So keep that in mind, and do _not_ neglect your physical training. It will often be the difference between life and death."

Ruby stood, gaping at her awesome Uncle Qrow. She rarely got to see his serious side, and well, he was kinda badass and wise at the same time whenever it happened. Before he inevitably ruined it, that is.

"Alright, this is gonna suck." He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "You two, leave the room and wait outside. Ruby, you stay. The unlocking of Aura is a very personal thing. Your soul and my soul, they're not the same. You got that?"

At their nods, he smirked, satisfied. "Good. Leave. I'll get you when it's your turn. It won't take too long."

After Rust and Lapis shuffled quietly out of the room, Qrow flashed Ruby a quick grin before ruffling her hair. "You ready, kiddo?"

"I was _born_ ready! This is gonna be so _awesome_!" Ruby quailed, her body practically vibrating with excitement.

"Hah!" Qrow let out burst of laughter. "Okay, okay, settle down, kid. Now c'mere, close your eyes and focus."

Ruby did as she was told.

'Breathe in, breathe out. Breathe in, breathe out. Relax.'

She barely registered her Uncle Qrow's hand touching her head before the world as she knew it spiralled into darkness.

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

Ruby opened her eyes, bewildered. Where was she?

She stood, alone, in the middle of nowhere amongst a field of stars. A comet passed by her field of vision; she saw a distant star explode; she noted the spinning of a faraway nebula. Tearing her sight away from some of the most beautiful things she had ever seen, she turned her glance downwards to see what she was standing on.

She couldn't comprehend what it was. Was it a flash of silver? But it was also empty. A void?

Hesitantly, she took a step forward. The world rippled in response. And with that, Ruby felt like she was soaring through the air.

" _ **Child of Remnant, free of duty and burden; what is your greatest desire in life?"**_

It was strange, but Ruby wasn't startled by the sudden presence of the disembodied voice, pondering instead the answer to the question. Her greatest desire…?

She'd never really thought of it, really. If she were to be honest with herself, she was, as the voice mentioned, a child. Children never quite knew what they wanted.

She had a great family and tons of friends, even if they weren't her age. Money wasn't a concern; she was fortunate that her father had never once had an issue with finances. As much as she talked about wanting to be a hero, she'd never actually enjoyed being in the spotlight for too long. Popularity, money and glory were out. They were nice, but she could live without them.

She wanted to be a Huntress to help people, but that was more a goal than a desire. She wanted to do her family proud, but she knew they would love her regardless. There were so many things that she desired, but none of them were prominent enough to be her greatest desire. Except maybe…

"I guess… I want to see the world." Ruby answered, hesitantly. "There are so many places I've yet to see, so many things I've yet to experience. There are lots of people I haven't met yet, each with their own stories to tell. I want to meet them and learn from them."

She nodded, this time more confident of her answer. "I want to see it all."

And with her answer, the world pulsed, suddenly enveloping her in a cold, gripping sensation.

" _ **Child of Remnant, driven to the edge of despair; what is your deepest fear?"**_

Unlike the previous question, this one was easy. Ruby didn't even need to think twice.

"Loneliness." Her voice rang out, empty and fragile. "I don't want to be left alone ever again."

Once again, the world pulsed, replacing the coldness with an urge to _do something._

" _ **Child of Remnant, on the brink of desperation; for what reason do you fight?"**_

She had almost opened her mouth to answer before her instincts told her to hold. Sure, it was cool and all, but that wasn't her real reason for fighting. There were plenty of other reasons that leapt out at her. Her mind argued that it was because it was what heroes did. Her heart insisted that it was to protect people. Both were equally valid reasons.

Still, there was something about those answers that bothered her. Yes, they were both reasons she fought for and believed in, but what drove her to believe them in the first place? The answer came unbidden to her lips.

"Love. I fight for the love I see in humanity. I fight for the love of life. I fight because I love Yang and Dad."

Her voice dropped to nearly a whisper, her eyes prickling. "I fight for Mom."

Ruby wasn't sure why she was being so open and emotional all of a sudden. In fact, why was she even here?

As before, the world rippled once more. There was no accompanying emotion this time; just a simple question.

" _ **Child of Remnant, Herald of Hope; what is your name?"**_

" _Ruby Rose."_

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

" _For it is love that drives us even beyond the grave; rising above even the brink of desolation to become a saviour of the world. An everlasting journey, unheeded by time; I release your soul, and with my heart, guide thee."_

* * *

 _-AD-_

* * *

 _A/N: Don't get too comfy with the swift updates. I'm currently on break, after all. As promised, I'm moving along the plot, so the writing's slightly less happy-go-lucky this time around._

 _Qrow is a bit hard to write, seeing as we actually have very little on him at the moment. My take on him ended up being: He's mischievous, cocky, irreverent and outright rude, but when it comes right down to it, he has a heart for people and cares for his students. He wouldn't be a teacher otherwise, and Ruby wouldn't adore him as she does in canon._

 _I'm getting tired of inventing OCs on the spot, but what else can you do with a pre-Beacon fic? They may be important in the future, they may not. I don't have plans for anyone outside the main cast. Then again, Leita, Lilka and Aru were supposed to show up for only two chapters, but kept returning because Ruby just wouldn't leave them alone._

 _That last bit there was completely improvised. It just seems to me that as a manifestation of the soul, unlocking a person's Aura would be intensely personal, so it feels very unlikely that doing so would simply require a formulaic chant. Pyrrha unlocking Jaune's Aura is the only instance that we see, and what she says ties in intrinsically with Jaune's characteristics. His greatest fear is being a failure, he fights to protect, and his greatest desire is to become a hero and legend beyond his death, like his family before him. "By my shoulder, I protect thee" would be Pyrrha's intentions toward him at the time. Much like Qrow's intentions to guide Ruby here. For the other students he doesn't really care for, he'd use his mind, not his heart._

 _Weiss would fear failure (different from Jaune's 'being a failure'), fight for duty/honour, and desire acknowledgement. Blake would fear her cowardice, fight for justice, and desire redemption. Yang would fear losing Ruby, fight for the thrill of battle, and desire to live every moment on the edge. Of course; they wouldn't actually experience the whole out world thing without the Gamer. The chant used to unlock their Aura would still reflect these differences, however._

 _Now, Ruby here has been affected by her experiences with Drifter's Quests and talking with the elders. Contracting the Gamer's got to have changed her somewhat. Canon Ruby grew up with the sole desire of becoming a Huntress to help/protect people. Her greatest fear would be losing both Yang and Taiyang, which is actually her same fear here; Gamer Ruby is wiser and can pinpoint the specific emotion. Her reason for fighting would be stay the same as well._

 _This change in her desires is just the first of many ripples that will mould the story._

 _Also, I know that people will probably clamour to see the Status screen right now, which has been absent the whole chapter. It'll definitely show in the next Chapter. There was just no real reason for me to put it in this time, and I'd rather not get into the habit of adding it at the end of every chapter._

 _Since I sincerely doubt I'll get in another one in four days, Merry Christmas, folks. Yuletide blessings be upon thee. Don't forget to give if you can afford to._


End file.
